Why we weep
by Thomas G. Arndt
Summary: <html><head></head>This story was writen when I read Awaken of the Hose of Hight series, none of my characters are from the basic story of the House of Night, but many af the belief's and rituals are still there with small changes. I hope you enjoy my take on a lovely time</html>
1. Chapter 1

Why we weep

I do not have the licience for House of Night, and even though my story is a related story and doesn't use any of the characters, it is a story based loosely on the House of Night, I came to enjoy the book Awaken and this sparked this story, I hope you enjoy my story.

In all we do

Written by Thomas G. Arndt

Chapter 1

I was always a good boy, I had nothing on my mind when it happened to me, we had just moved to this state, my new school was John Marshall, I hadn't even had a chance to live in this state yet, I had just left my last class and was walking home. I had just made into the ninth grade in Detroit, then my Momma's divorce was settled, then we moved to Oklahoma City, I was always a loner of sorts, I don't mean a bad kid, my Momma had said I was always a self made child. She had said the world could be ending and there I'd be very self content with it all, she said my smile was infectious and as soon as the girls saw that they would be drawn to me, well that wasn't a problem in my life. You would think I had the plague or something, I mean I had a few girl friends, but really nothing else, they used me so they could say hey look I have a boy friend, but in the end they all left me just standing there, I can't say it was them, I mean all those girls can't be wrong. The girl I wanted the most in Detroit was Anna Massey, and of course she wouldn't give me the time of day, it wasn't that she was gay or something, she really didn't give any boy the time of day, and I think she was to pretty to be gay, not that all gay girls were ugly. Hey I only knew one gay person, and he wasn't really openly gay, and he was my friend anyways, Mark Lewis, he was really cool and a true friend, but there I was walking home, with no friends and no girl in my life, I felt all alone in my new life as we approached each other.

I was so lost in my thought's that I didn't see her until I ran into her, I mean I really ran into her knocking her on her butt, so then looked up at me, I was so embarrassed that I moved as quickly as I could, I put my hand out so she could grab it and said, " Oh I'm so sorry, here let me help you up."

She went ahead and grabbed my hand so I could pull her to her feet, she was completely covered up, she had on those black leg warmers that didn't cover your ankle's, and a very dark blue hoodie over her head, it was opened up to reveal a short black dress. You know one of those dresses that every girl thinks they just must own. She then said to me, " I'm sorry I wasn't watching where I was going, do you know where John Marshall is, I'm late and I'm afraid I may have missed him."

I pointed behind me and said, " It's over there, but you're late classes just got out, all you're going to find are football players, cheerleaders, and of course band geeks, I guess you'll have to come back tomorrow, I'm so sorry, was it very important?"

She looked me square in the eye's, and this was the first time I saw her tattoo's around her eye's and forehead, she was the first and most beautiful vampyre I had ever seen, and I had a warm feeling all over my body, it was a strange feel that I had never had before.

She then pulled up a piece of paper and said, " Dammit it maybe to late for him. Hey I used to be a band geek."

Well that was goof, stuck my foot in my mouth again, so I added, " Sorry again, I guess you could say that I'm jealous, you see all I can do is draw, and I'm not very good at that, I was hoping to get into a class here, except it was to late in the year when I started. Do you know that they start the school year here in August, back at home we didn't start until September."

Her smile was the nicest I had ever seen as she asked, " So are you one of those starving artists that will give his all for his craft?"

" Yeah, but my Momma told me it was better if I used it just as a hobby, to get paid I have to take up what I'm good at, she wants me to be a C. P. A."

" Boring!"

" Ya think!" I have smiled and giggled, " So anyways you'll have to come back tomorrow because you missed the day, so I have to ask you, are you one of those trackers I've heard about?"

She gave me a wary smile as she replied, " yeah, or you could call me a marker, Well my mark lived in Detroit, and he gave me the slip there, I don't know why he's running for, I mean he's getting ready to change, and if I don't get to him, well he'll just die, well nice meeting you, I have to find him fast."

Well hearing that and me being from Detroit, and I had to think I may have recognized him, so I asked, " Hey I'm from Detroit, I may know him, well I really don't know anyone, so I guess it maybe a bust but just tell me and just maybe I may know him."

And as you may have already guessed that I should have just kept my mouth shut, she then looked at the paper that I just noticed were a beautiful shade of violet, and to my horror she asked me, " Well then do you know a Jonathan Williamson?"

So the best thing to do right then was to run, but what did I do. Yes. You guessed it, " Hey that's me!"

She then said some funny words and pointed to my forehead and said, " Jonathan Williamson, so you have been marked."

Ok, I'm big strong guy, so I was surprised when I hit the ground hard, so now my day was filled with purples and pinks floating around my head, as an artist I could describe the color pallet, but that may take the rest of this page so lets just leave it at that. So as my head cleared, and the throbbing lessened, I did a guy thing, I looked around to see if anyone had just seen what had just happened, not so much for help, but more to see if they saw this little girl that just knocked this big guy on his butt. I then got up and straighten myself and dusted myself off, carefully I watched all the houses as I slowly walked the rest of the way home, I have no idea of of how long I sat there, I knew she was there when I fell, then as my head cleared she wasn't. I knew my first duty as the eldest of five was to get home and do whatever chores my Momma had left me, as usual she had left me a list, and my chore was to do the dishes, we were to poor to afford a dishwasher, so that meant by hand. My brother's chore was to cook dinner, that meant hot dogs, macaroni and cheese, and pork and beans, of course only if he got off his dead butt and did it, as usual my Momma would have to come in and yell at him. My sisters were hard at work, and as usual every move came with an argument, it was never a good thing that the two of them were arguing. Momma would come in and yell at my brother, then she would her the girls, she would say she has a splitting headache and then go lay down, which of course is what I had this very moment, so I threw my book bag on the table and started the dishes.

As usual I would breeze through my math, then spend the rest of the night on the rest, well not my history, I loved history and always did it in study hall, and as I knew my brothers and sisters I knew what was coming next, Dex, He's my youngest brother, well he was the youngest of us all, he was only eight. Well Dex would come out and kick me on the back of my leg, I would chase him down and pin him on his bed most likely, I would hold him until he said, ' Uncle,' then as I let him go he would say, ' Suck up.' I think he's taking my brother Alph's example, as you may have guess my Momma loved strange names, I'm Jonathan Flavious Williamson. Then you have my brothers and sisters, Alphsee Thomasan, Sallisious Julian, Helena Katrinia, and Dexter Guyous weird right. At least I have a normal nickname, I mean you can't go wrong with Jon, oh I should tell you that I'm sixteen, Alph will be fifteen in October, Helen will be twelve in November, Sally was thirteen in May with Dex. As I predicted he came out and kicked me right in the back of the leg, it hurt, it really hurt, but my head out weighed the pain in my leg.

So I said as strongly as I could, " Dex not today, my head really hurts, just give me a _break today." _I stretched out the last two words.

Sally then said, " Hey just take some aspirin and get over yourself."

" Can't, Momma's going to the store and getting some more, _we're out." _Again I stretched out the last two words.

My other brother then came out and said, " It sucks to be you."

Alph then did something that was weird for him, he put his hand on my forehead to feel it, he shook his hand as he said, " Man you're burning up, maybe I should call Momma and have her come home."

I whipped around and yelled, which I have to say really hurt, " NO!" Then I centered myself and said in a more calm voice, " No Alph, I'll live, just cook dinner for once, I think I can bare the pain for three hours."

Then he blurted out, " AH, I'M TELLING MOMMA THAT YOU HAVE A TATTOO."

So of course I yelled back as my last nerve had been shed, " WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT I AIN'T GOT NO TATTOO."

Momma really hated tattoo's, she said they were a permanent mark and just plain silly, like anyone had to be marked for life, and what were you going to do when it no longer meant anything to you, well I wasn't going to get a tattoo, I would become a C. P. A. just like my Momma wanted, I had no idea of how I was going to pay for college, and it was a long way off, maybe I could get a job while I went, but now I had to figure out how to pass English class. I mean I could speak it, what was it that made it so hard on me, and English lit. was impossible, I had to read books and write reports on them, like I could write, well maybe I can. Does it take a genius to figure out I didn't have time to read let alone write, so I my disgust I pulled out two pans and put them on the stove so Alph could cook dinner, He would boil the hot dogs and macaroni and cheese, we would nuke the pork and beans, I preferred my hot dogs fried, but Alph had no idea of how to do that. I knew right away that I had put the pans down a little to hard, and my sisters reminded me right away when they said in unison, " Ah, we're telling Momma that you're trying to break her pan's."

My head hurt so bad that I didn't make my usual replied so Alph said, " Hey your head must really hurt."

I snapped at him with, " Have you ever known me to be sick?"

" Hey bro maybe you should go lay down, I wasn't kidding when I said you were burning up."

" It really hurts Alph, it's like my eye's are bugging out, I don't even know if I can do my homework."

" Dork's Vil."

" I'm not a dork stupid."

" Don't call me stupid."

" Ok Butt Head."

" That's better."

You see he really likes Beavus and Butt Head, so he thought it was a compliment, but I never meant it that way, he really could be a butt head sometimes, of course he was really showing concern for me right now. So I went to work on our few dishes, you see we had two sets, one Momma call her good set, most people would call them normal white dishes, then you had our everyday dishes, plastic along with plastic glasses, the silverware was normal though. I also had to wash the frying pan, sauce pan, and large bowl, you see yesterday it was my day to cook, so I made Hamburger Helper with mixed vegetables, and a salad, you see Hamburger Helper was never enough for a large family, so you had to eat other things. Momma had a small kitchen set that only sat four, so Momma and I would sit in the living room to eat, I loved it, you see she always said no T. V. until after we ate, but as we sat down to eat she would always ask me, " Jon how was your day?"

I always did the guy thing and replied, " It was ok Momma, how was your day?"

Then she would tell me all about her day, I never brought up my day no matter how hard it had been, if I failed yet another English test I would wait until later so she could be prepared, even with all my failing grade, I somehow always seem to get out of a grade with a D, so I would be passed onto the next grade. I had to think they did that because they saw I was really trying, after I got done I got right to my homework, I did my math first, algebra,it seemed really easy to me, then I would do my history if I hadn't already had it done, which on this day I had. When this was done then I would got on to the feared English, jeesh I could speak it wasn't that enough, it kept me off the football team, I'm not sure how I feel about that, I loved football, but every time I played I broke something, three fingers, and arm and my left leg. And I couldn't even do that right, every break came away from the field, and my left leg I broke the main bone not the small one, when most people had a walker cast, my break was so bad I couldn't.

Of course my Momma said, " John you're not cut out for football, and it's so expensive."

I knew she was talking about the injuries and not the football, my Dad was really proud of me, it seemed that I always made first string, and always at center, I really wanted to play nose guard on defense then center on offense. I mean nose guard always gets to dish out the punishment, where as the center always has to take it, I think my Dad was really proud at me that I never screamed when I got a break, well all except for my leg break, Alph said I screamed like a little girl. I don't know that I've ever heard a little girl scream like that, I was glad it was only practice so my Dad wasn't there, and the couch rushed me to the hospital, I think that's when my Momma and Daddy were on the outs, and that was the first time I saw my Momma cry. I really hurt bad, and she had to take a cab to the hospital, and I had to lay in my pain as the couldn't do anything until one of them got there, they had to put me out when they set my leg, and I was just coming out of it when I heard her on the phone with him.

I kept my eye's closed as she cried, " John he's your son you should be here."

Yeah I'm his name sake, well kinda, our middle names are different, Momma said she didn't want a junior in her house, plus I kinda like the name Jon, not Jon junior, she slammed the phone down and the noise made my eye's pop open. She then said to me, " Baby boy are you ok?"

The hurt in my chest was great, was it true that my Dad didn't want to see me, I could tell that my lower lip quivered as I said, " Momma don't cry, see I have a cool cast."

Well it really wasn't very cool, and she wiped her nose with the ever present tissue and said, " Baby boy no more football."

While I recuperated I heard her cry almost everyday, I wanted to help her out so badly, I knew I couldn't, then came the nervous break down, so Grandma brought us here, Grandpa and her live in Yukon, we live with them for a few day until Momma found a house to rent. It was a small house in the Village, it has two bed rooms, Us boys shared one, and Momma and my sisters shared the other one, It's hell to get into the bathroom, and if you sit down to do your business someone always knocks. I was the only one allowed to take a shower by myself, everyone else had to take baths together, I mean b the two boys and girl, not together really, and Momma got her own shower, Momma said it was a way to say money on water. I was my job to make sure everyone ate in the morning, cereal the stuff in the bag, I also had to make sure Alph didn't drink all the milk, he liked cereal with his milk, Momma was always gone before we left for school. And in a week Alph and I would be taking the bus to school, well I guess you've already figured out I would never make that bus, it wasn't my idea, all I wanted was to be with Momma and the kids. I couldn't concentrate so I took Alph's advice and laid down, after I was laying a little while Alph came in and said, " Momma's on her way I just called her."

I lifted my head and yelled, " HELL ALPH, SHE NEEDS TO WORK, I COULD TAKE THE PAIN!"

Well normally I could, but I opened my eye's and the room started to spin, boy was I glad I was already laying on my bed, because I passed out right there and then, I woke up with Alph shaking me saying, " Jon wake up, don't die boy we need you, just wake up Jon just wake up."

I then smiled and said, " Hey Butt Head I'm not dead yet."

At that very time I could hear Sally saying, " Momma he's in here, I think he's dead."

Yeah that was my sister old miss worry wart, so as you could imagine Momma burst into the room, my brother then put up his hands saying, " Momma he's not dead, he just called me Butt Head."

I could hear her cry and laugh at the same time as she asked, " Baby boy are you ok?"

I opened up my eye's and smiled as I replied, " Momma I'm fine, please don't cry, everything will be fine, I just need to lay down for a while, good thing my head stop hurting, maybe I can do my homework now, I just wish the room would stop spinning."

Ok I passed out yet again, as I woke up something cool was on my forehead, when I reached up I felt the wet wash clothe there, this caused Helen to scream, " MOMMA HE'S AWAKE, HE'S AWAKE!"

Now my sister had a record of being heard seven blocks away when she screamed, so you can imagine how that felt on my ear's, Momma came in with the phone to her ear and said, " Ok you'll here in about an hour, can I give him some aspirin?"

She stood just a moment then she said, " Ok just one, got it, thank you very much, can I go with him?"

She then sat on the small part of the bed as she nodded her head for a moment, then she said, " Thank you and I'll see you then, goodbye."

As she hung up the phone and smiled at me I asked, " Momma who was that on the phone?"

She then lifted her head up and started to give orders, " Alph go get my big suit case, Sally and Helen get Jon's clothes ready to pack, and make sure you pack his good underwear, not his old ratty stuff."

I knew something was wrong, first Momma always answered me, second she said only wear your good underwear when you go to the hospital or something, then she put her hand to my forehead, I tried to lift my head and she said, " No Baby boy, they said it's better if you lay down, allow your sisters to do this for you, I think they can take care of you for once."

I then answered her with, " Momma I don't think I'm in any condition to go dancing, man I think my headache has come back,I don't seem to be able to move, and it's ten times worse."

She then put my head in her lap and said as she grabbed the aspirin bottle, " No Baby boy, they said it's better if you don't try to move, they said you can have one aspirin so here, Sally get your brother a glass of water."

I had a hard time lifting my arm for the aspirin, and I saw her smile, it seemed to hide terror behind her eye's, I could see a single tear roll down her face as she moved a single strand out of my face. Then she kissed my cheek, it was a really wet kiss, she only kisses like that when something was wrong, I could feel a pain in my chest again as Sally came in with my glass of water, Momma put the aspirin on my tongue, then lifted my head so I could take a drink. Her hands were trembling so bad, just like when she had just gotten done yelling at Daddy, as she took the glass away from my lips I said, " Momma it's ok, I'll be fine."

She had to turn her head and Sally asked, " Momma why are you crying?"

Oh my Momma was crying over me, that pain in my chest just got like one hundred times worse, it came to me what was going on, I knew what was happening to me, I used all the strength and wrapped my arm's around her. I could feel the wetness of her tears on her cheek's on my forehead as I said, " Momma down cry, I'll be ok, really I'll be ok."

I had to think why her sobs got even deeper, it was like when she found out Aunt Denny had died, she was really sad, I think her and Aunt Denny were really close, it was then that I realized my deeper problem, I wasn't just sick, it was something more, so I tried to tighten my hug on her. Both of my sisters were now crying, oh just please they weren't the one dying here, my rationalization was clear, I would comfort her as I was dying and going into a new life, so this is what dying is like, well this really sucks, and me never having a girlfriend. Well if these were my last moments I would make my Momma my girlfriend and try to comfort her, so what was the best thing to say to you girlfriend at a time like this, so I whispered into her ear, " Momma I've been a good boy, it's ok, I can take it, and next we'll meet in Heaven."

Well that didn't help at all, she jumped up and ran from my room, Alph then came into the room with the suit case, and my sisters started to fill it, it was Momma's giant yellow suit case, she was so proud of that thing, I guess I have to figure out a way to get it back to her. Alph had a bewildered look on his face as he asked, " Hey Butt Head what did you say to Momma?"

I cried out, : I don't know, I don't know, God please help me."

Well that made Alph cry, and my little brother Dex came in and asked, " Why is Momma pounding the table and crying?"

Everyone except me replied, " I don't know."

I could feel the warmth on my face as I replied, " I, I think know, I, I think I'm dying, ya, you remember Aunt Denny, I, I don't want to die, please God help me."

Well the water works really started now, Alph was the one that did up the suit case as my two sisters had fully lost it and I really couldn't move much, I then called to Alph is a whisper, " Alph?"

" Yeah Ja, Jon?"

" Buddy you have to be the man now, I, you have to be strong for Momma, why don't ya, you make her a, a pot of coffee, a, and for Gods sake make dinner."

He nodded his head as he left the room, he did the little giggle cry thing, then at the end I could hear him bust out in a full cry, I then asked in a slightly stronger voice, " Sally?"

" Ya, yes J-on?"

" Help Alph, he, he's going to need your help, I, it's a really hard job, ja, just be there for him."

She then nodded and with that she slowly collapsed to the floor in tears, I had to be dying because my Momma came in, and her cheeks were that color of fire engine red just like with Aunt Denny, she then said, " Girls go to your room, Dex go help your brother, Jon and I have to talk."

So they all then left the room, she then came close to me on my bed and straighten me out and then whispered into my ear, " Baby boy you're not dying, but it might as well be, you see you have to leave with some very special people who know how to take care of you, I'm sorry Jon, but you can never come home again Baby."

I whimpered to her, " But Momma maybe they'll find a cure for what I have and I can come home, Momma I don't want to leave you."

She smiled at me and whispered, " No Baby boy there's no cure for this, they say there's a one in ten chance that you may still die, but Baby you were late, they're sending a car so I can be there for you just in case. And Baby boy they say I visit you on their visiting days, I wish I could explain more to you, but they say they really have to explain things to you, I'll go home when we're sure that you're out of the woods, and I'll visit as soon as I can."

Alph then burst into the room saying, " Momma there's an ambulance out front."

" Alph show them back here, it's for Jon, and Alph you need to watch the kids while I'm gone, oh and take them Jon's suit case."

Alph then took I guess you could say new suit case in two hands and after he left with it I whispered, " Momma maybe we could tell him, I mean he's really worried."

" Baby boy it better if they think you're dead, I'll go ahead and tell them that I'm visiting your grave."

" Momma don't allow them to forget me?"

She grabbed my head in both her hands and said, " How could I ever do that, I mean you were always the man of the house, and Jon you really helped me through a really bad time, so I'll never forget you."

" Momma can you tell Grandpa and Grandma?"

" Grandma, but Grandpa has a bad ticker, he might be able to take the first jolt, but if you die anyways that might do him in, so Grandma and I'll keep it our little secret, ok?"

" Ok Momma, would you ask Grandma to bring those cookies she makes, you know the ones with the raisins, chocolate chips, and nuts, I really, really like them."

" Honey those are call Granola Bars, but yes I'll ask her, and Baby boy I'll call her when we get there so she knows where you are."

I wanted her to call her right then and there, but Alph chose this very moment to enter the room with those men, there were two of them with a stretcher, now I have to tell you I'm really afraid of tight spaces, so they picked me up and put me on the stretcher. Then they strapped me in, and my eye's must have gone bug eyed, my Momma came straight to me, I could feel how scared I was as she whispered, " Baby they have to do this for your own safety, just close your eye's and think of the time you went fishing with your Grandpa, just go to your happy place."

Go to my happy place, I loved my Grandpa to death, but him yelling while we fished wasn't my happy place, his buddies were always loud and drinking beer, and believe me that's a smell you never really didn't want to experience twice, so where was my happy place. The sirens were so loud I had a hard time thinking, then it came to me, I went to when Momma and I sat in the living room and just talked, and her telling me how sucky her day was, well and I guess the wheel also, but it was such good times. Well I guess this is my happy time, and she really loved the wheel, I wasn't that good, but it made me really happy when I got one, and she would tell me how smart I was, some times we laughed to the point of crying. I had to keep my eye's closed, the man that was with me kept giving me something to drink, it had a strawberry flavor what ever it was, but every time he did this I had to recenter myself, so it was a surprise to me when we came to a stop.

The two men then took me out with as much easy as a bulldozer, so keeping my center was not going to happen, so I had to ask, " Could you loosen these straps, I think I'm about to lose it?"

A woman's voice came from right next to me, she had on a midnight blue dress. Her make up was perfect, and she had the longest nails I had ever seen also in midnight blue, my expectations were hospital scrubs and maybe a mask, I was happy to see that I wasn't in a hospital, but wasn't I sick, she had taken my hand as she said, " Not just yet my dear boy."

Her hands were very cold, she had long blonde hair all the way down to her butt, it was so blonde it was almost white, her nails had to be more then an inch long and she was very young, no there was no way she was my doctor. Then we burst through some really old wooden doors, and the two guys unstrapped me and lifted me to a big iron bed, then another woman came in with a black as night liquid, she then said, " Drink this up my boy."

I didn't have much time to notice much after that, because as soon as I drank the liquid I was pretty much out, it was the most disgusting things I had ever drank, but I did notice two things before I went out, one; I really didn't want to drink that stuff again, two; that woman that gave me the liquid had the strangest color of red hair, it had to be a dye job or wig.

So as I woke up I stared at the ceiling to see if I was still alive, I saw a flash to my right so I turned my head to see what it was, the only thing I saw was the door swing close. So I turned my attention back to the ceiling, it was all wood like that really expensive type you hear about on the houses of the rich and famous. Then I heard a very familiar voice coming from the hall, I felt very heavy all over, it did seem that it would take quite an effort to move anything. But I knew I was ok, my head didn't hurt anymore and the room wasn't spinning, so I lifted myself to rest on my elbow's, and a lady with an orange wig came in. she then said to my Momma who was obviously out in the hall, " He just woke up, you may want to take it easier."

Then came my second most favorite voice ever, " Young lady you wouldn't want to piss off an old woman."

It was the matter of fact way she spoke that made my heart sore and I almost squealed, " Grandma!"

She replied to me almost immediately, " Johnny we'll be in there in a moment ok?"

" Ok, tell Momma I'm much better, I think I heard her."

" Yes you did dear, I'll be in there as soon as I can Baby boy." Came from my Momma.

So I laid down and waited, I laid down an this strange old hospital bed, but this was obviously not a hospital room, it seemed that everything was made out of wood or stone, most hospital rooms were so sterile. Then in the next second that first lady came into my room, I was just thinking of counting the large wooden tiles, it would have been a short count, she was wearing a very long dark dress and her nails were done the same color, so either of three things had happened. One my eye's must or were playing tricks on me, two she really liked to change clothes a lot, or three I've been asleep for awhile, I had to bet on the later, she then came over and felt my wrist. Ok she had to be twenty, maybe twenty-two years old, and I knew how long it took to be a doctor, but if she was my doctor you couldn't have a prettier one. Then she looked into my eye's, she just moved my eye lids with her thumb, she used no equipment, it was kinda like I was a science project, of course the one doing the experimenting on me was really hot, she then leaned back and sat on the foot of my bed and gave me a nice smile.

Then she spoke with an almost musical tone to her voice, " Well Jon, you gave us a little bit of a scare, do you know how much you came close to rejecting the change?"

I had to smile back as her smile seemed intoxicating and reply, " No Ma'am, I don't even know what happened to me, that was really weird."

" You do know you were marked right?"

" That's what that pretty girl told me, I had no idea of what she was talking about."

" Oh my, no one has ever spoke to you about being marked?"

I had to sigh as I asked, " Is this an Oklahoma thing, I Mean we've only been here a little while."

Her smile then went flat as she asked, " Where did you live before this?"

" Detroit Ma'am."

" Well that's unusual, they're usually good about telling all the kids about the darkness sickness."

" Darkness sickness?"

" Yes the change into our existence, you do know what I am don't you?"

I looked at her tattoo's and knew she was a vampyre, so I asked, " Are you telling me that I'm becoming a vampyre Ma'am?"

" Yes Jon, well not exactly yet, but you're entering a brave new and scary world."

" I knew it, I . . . I just didn't want to believe it, I mean passed out and everything, I guess I really didn't want to leave home, I mean my Momma really needs me."

" Well Jon you wouldn't be very good to her if you were dead would you now?"

I laid down and stared back at the ceiling and I replied, " No Ma'am, I'm sorry Ma'am."

She smiled at me and said, " Well you're here now and we'll help you through this, now get dressed so I can send in your Grandmother and Mother, they've been here everyday since you've arrived."

It was now that except for the hospital gown I had nothing else on, so I had two very important question, first was, " Ma'am where are my clothes?"

She pointed to one of the closets, so I continued on with my second question, " Ma'am how long have I been out?"

She smiled as she replied, " Barely over forty-two hours."

Ok I've never slept that long before, in fact I had a problem getting a good six, Alph on the other hand could sleep through an earth quake, but I just wasn't that kind of guy, so I moved over to the closet and opened it. It was very neat, my T-shirt and pants were hung up and my shoes laid on the floor next to my very large yellow suit case, I opened the top draw of a three draw cabinet, and yes there were my underwear and socks, I was half tempted to keep on my hospital booties. But instead I went with what I knew so I stripped and up on my underwear and socks, then my T-shirt and pants, lastly I put on my shoes, I normally put my socks on just before my shoes, but it seemed better this way, I was tying my last shoe when Momma came through the door, she was so happy to see me that she choked me as she wrapped her arm's around my neck. I kissed her neck as I tried to finish my shoe, my Grandma came up behind her so I gave her a good smile as she liked to call them, she said a smile is how you show the world your goodness. She's the smartest woman I knew, what am I saying, she's the smartest person I know, she then pulled out a small tin of something, I knew what it was even before I opened it, yeah it was her world famous get well fudge, as was out way, I took one small piece and handed it around.

Grandma always said a good way to relieve tension was always through fudge, and she made the best fudge in the world, oh and at Christmas she makes the best fruit cake, my friends that swear they hate fruit cake love her's, her fudge has nuts ( I think she puts nuts in everything ), marshmallow's, and raisins ( she tries to put raisins in everything ). She seems to be baking all the time, she said the only good person was one that had a sweet tooth, I guess that's why Grandpa stayed with her like a gazillion years, but it works if you know what I mean. Grandpa is from the old country, I mean he was born in Scotland, he met Grandma here, she's really cool, I think they met in El Reno, her hair is gray now, but it used to be a true ravens black. I think she told me she was a Cherokee Indian, I never saw her wearing anything that would say that she was a Cherokee Indian, I only just started to wear my hair long, it's more in honor of my Cherokee ancestor heritage. Momma always carried her hair short, but you could see how dark her hair was, it was passed her ear's, but not quite to her shoulder's. Grandma had really long hair, she wears it up in a bun most of the time, but some times she wears it long, and it goes all the way down to the center of her back. To me I really don't care what color your hair is, but if it's long, well watch out, wow that sounds like I would rape you, I've never and never will rape a woman, but I would give you my patented one eye brow blue's brother stare. Maybe I should change that, I mean that's gotten me a lot of women thus far, as in none, so as we sat there enjoying our fudge, the woman that had checked me out came back in, Grandma and Momma always wore Pants and shirts, I hadn't seen very many women in dresses, and in full length she was my first, and her's was really long, it seemed to glide across the floor, I had to wonder if all vampyres moved like that.

She folded her arm's and asked, " Jon why didn't you tell anyone?"

I replied, " I wanted to wait until my Momma got home?"

" What do you mean, when were you marked?"

" Well let me think. I got out of school at three thirty, so three forty or so, on Wednesday so I guess that makes this Friday then. But she said she couldn't figure out why I was avoiding her, I mean we weren't, we just moved here, she said she went to Detroit first, then she followed me here."

" Oh then the High Council made the mistake, you have the lightest mark I've ever seen, it's almost aqua instead of sapphire like normal." She said the first part with disdain, but the second part as if she had been distracted.

Ok so I was becoming a vampire and had a million questions, but more important was to be a gentle man so I picked up the tin and asked, " Fudge Ma'am, Grandma made it and it's really good."

With the very tips of her very long finger nails she pulled out a very small piece, so I smiled at her and she said, " Jon I have to go to sleep, so I'll save this for later tonight. Now Veronica show Jon and his Grandma to his new room, I've already heard your mother has to go back to work."

That woman then came in with the strange hair, so I leaned in and asked in a whisper, " A Ma'am, is that lady wearing a wig? And if she is, why?"

" Cancer," she whispered matter of factually, then added, " You see our blood can heal some of their symptoms, we can keep them alive for a little longer, they serve us and we heal them until their final day, but we have to be sure that there's no hope so they have to go through the treatment first, so they usually loose their hair, the wigs I think are a way to say that they are themselves and not the cancer."

That made me very sad for them, I put on a brave face and gave her my biggest smile I could, then I picked up the big suit case which as I said was probably mine now, Grandma then said, " Well young lady go ahead and lead the way."

I was a little worried at the way my Grandma spoke to her, but I put it aside and said nothing to her, so she went first and my grandma followed her, and I took up the rear, we moved down a very short hallway, then we came to door number seven, that was mine. She then put a piece of masking tape on the gold plate, gold, it was probably brass, then she wrote my last name on it. She pulled out a key ring with four keys on it, then she took one off and used it to open the door, then we entered a small room. It had an iron frame bed with mattress over springs, at the foot but away from the bed was a cabinet, down the wall and close to the head was a single lonely sink, inside the cabinet was a small three draw dresser, on the other side of the bed from the bed was a night stand with a single light standing on it. She went to the small dresser and pulled out the sheets and a single blanket, I probably won't need the blanket, I probably never would, she then placed it on the end of the bed. So I did the same with my suit case, then I unzipped it, as soon as it was open Grandma went right to work, if Momma was here she'd be really mad at her right now, and as the lady known as Veronica had helped us so much I opened the tin and asked, " Fudge?"

She smiled at me as she replied in a very sweet voice, " Thank you very much, ok you can do with your room as you want, the communal shower is down the hall, the girls have six thirty till seven, the boys get from seven fifteen till seven forty-five, you're expected in class by eight. Classes last until three, and an hour after is dinner, after three is your time, and dinner lasts for an hour to accommodate you, the dinning hall is right across from where we entered the hall. Dinner and lunch will be served to you, you're on your own for breakfast, there is an ample supply of cereal's and juices in the kitchen, all you have to do is grab it for yourself. The kitchen closes at six thirty and doesn't reopen until six thirty the next day, if you need something to eat you can go out to the shed, there is and ample supply of drinks and good desserts for you, the secretaries keep them up so there's enough food ready for you always. Balitious expects all fledglings to keep their room clean. Now have I forgotten anything, oh yes you're supposed to be sleeping right now, so if you need the shed it's out by the pool area, the pool is on one side and the shed is on the other, just look for the screen door and you've found it, ok I have to get back to the office."

I shook my head no as I said, " I think I got it Veronica."

She smiled back and in one sweep of the room she was out the door, so I went to my Grandma's side and helped her re-fold all my clothes, I had four pair of pants which I hung three as I was wearing one pair, I then hung up my two shirts that looked like Polo shirts, of course they weren't. I had one button up shirt which I hung up, I almost never wore it, then I put my good shoes on the floor of the cabinet, I almost never wore them either, I had six printed T-shirts and since I was wearing one I hung up the other five, so in all I used twelve of their hangers which they gave me about ten thousand, well maybe not that many, but more then what I was used to seeing. Grandma then pulled out a small brown bag and explained how everything in there was used, like I really needed help on how to use soap and toothpaste, well the deodorant was new to me, well I guess I needed to know how to use them, but I had to ask, " Grandma do I stink that bad?"

" No Jon you'll always smell sweet to me, but girls can be so unkind, I was just saving you grief."

" No Grandma I was just kidding."

" Oh Jon you're such a kidder, here help me with the sheets."

She then flung one out and said, " Oh a top sheet." Then she flung the second out and it was the same kind of sheet, she then looked around to see if there were anymore sheets, and as there weren't she said, " Johnny as soon as I can I'll bring you back normal sheets, so listen to me so I can show you how to do hospital corners."

" Hospital corners Grandma?"

" Yes, you remember I used to be a nurse."

I smiled at her and as she explained, I did everything she told me, but kinda in reverse as I was on the other side, then as Grandma would she checked my work, she was proud at how well I had done, then we did the other direction, and then the blanket so it matched the last sheet. She knew I never used a blanket, but she had us do it anyways, then we did the pillow case, I mean I was used to only having one so it was no biggie, then she had me go out to her car and bring in a box. The box had four items, first she got me an O. U. pennant and lamp shade, next was the great big throw pillow she kept on the couch, it was filled with many earth tones that she loved, then she brought out her earth tone throw blanket, you know one of those that are knit. I could smell all the familiar smells of Grandma's house, Cinnamon, brown sugar, with a hint of vanilla, she smiled at me and said, " See now you don't have to sleep under your sheets, you can just wrap yourself in my old quilt."

I was so happy that I had to wrap my arm's around her as I said, " But Grandma those are your favorite things, I can just use the sheets."

" No Honey, I was going to buy a new one anyways, and I have to take care of the old man, he might be looking for his lunch right now."

That was Grandma speak the old man she spoke of is Grandpa, she loves him to death, but she always calls him that old man, well he did look old, the only part of Grandma that looked old was the back of her hands. Her and Momma looked exactly the same, of course I would never tell Momma that, Momma's family had nine kids, five girls and four boys, the eldest of which my Momma called the clan is dead as I've already told you, she fell down some stairs. Grandpa had two problems, his heart was bad, and he couldn't breathe that well, Grandpa always said Grandma was in five hundred percent health, there's no such thing, but we were happy to agree with him. I really, really loved it when she would wear her hair down, it made her even look younger, Grandpa called her his Indian Princess then, you know I've never seen a day when they didn't kiss, I had to wonder if that was perfect love meant, you know to have the willingness to kiss everyday.

Grandma had to leave before noon, so she kissed me on the forehead and told me to get some sleep and be a good boy, but as she made it to the door she had an embarrassed look on her face as she admitted, " As if I ever have to worry about that Jon, you're always a good boy."

That made me happy and embarrassed that she thought I was always a good boy, and as she left and I hadn't taken a shower in two days, that was first on my agenda, so I went and found the communal shower Veronica told me about, I wasn't much for taking long showers, just get in and out was my motto. After I got done I thought about walking around, but I realized my Grandma was right, so I tried to lay down, well the very sunny day and forty-two hours of sleep said a big fact no to sleep! So I pulled out my sketch pad and started to work on a picture that I was working on, I must have lost all track of time as I started to hear doors slam, I turned my head and yes it was six thirty, so I put my pad away and then went to the kitchen, this was Oklahoma which meant it was very bright and still very warm. I followed six guy's into the walk-in, I secured a bowl with a small bow of cereal with a pint of milk, one of the guys stopped me and made sure I got a bottle of juice and bowl of fruit, two things I noticed about this guy, was first he smelt to nice to be a guy, and second man she had a lot of piercing's.

She had very short hair, longer then most boys, and it stuck out in every direction, her eye's were very deep dark brown, her skin was very pale, her eye's were deeply lined, and she had on red lip stick with green eye shadow, her nails were very long and black. She wore green army pants that were to big for her, then were cut off in a ragged line just below the knee's, I couldn't see her socks all the way, but they had to be knee socks, with high top tennis shoes. She had on a purple tank top that was tight enough to show a little of what she owned, she wore a flannel blue colored shirt over this with it's arm's rolled up, if I hadn't seen her bra straps I would have figured that she went without. I had ti figure she was one of those people that didn't want to go unnoticed, she then spoke in the most sweetest voice I had ever heard, " Hey bud, you have to sit at my table, now this doesn't mean that we're going steady or anything, so just be cool and we'll get along. All right?"

So I followed this vision of loveliness to my new table, as we sat down she put her hand out like a guy and said, " the names Priscilla."

I can't believe what I asked next, " Do you mean like in Presley?"

" Yeah I'm Elvis's unwanted step child, hey dork do you have a name?"

" Oh sorry, it's Jon, and I'm not a dork."

Ok that may have pulled me away from the light side, and I guess you can also call me a Star Wars nerd, she gave me a good look, then the corners of her lips went up, well that sent me closer to the dark side, and I knew why Helen's face launched a thousand ships, so I looked around to see all the rest were truly guys. As I was looking around she chimed in with, " Oh great you're gay."

She caught me totally off guard so I said, " A gay, no, I was just looking around to see-"

She cut me off with, " Hey I know I'm not a looker, but damn I could even hold your attention, damn I suck at being a vampyre."

" No, no, I just saw your smile and I had to a . . ."

As I was having a time saying the next word she came in with, " Yeah I know I'm a looser."

" No not a looser," I quickly said, then slightly embarrassed I added, " you're just so pretty, I've never seen anyone like you before, can I ask what you are, I mean is that like Emo meets Goth?"

She smiled at me as she said, " No Butt Head, it's called grunge."

" Do you mean like the eighties and early nineties grunge?"

" Yeah I'm bring the look back."

" Got many followers yet?"

" No, just one right now, but we're going to rule the world."

" I'm not grunge, but if you want a hand I'll give you a hand."

She had to laugh at me as she asked, " Why so you can get into my frilly little panties?"

Well honestly I hadn't thought about it, but now that she said it I could imagine her nude, ok I wanted her as a friend so I had to shake my head, then I whispered just loud enough for her to hear, " No just a friend for right now."

She stared at me for a few seconds, so I started to eat my cereal, then she finally whispered back, " Just friends right."

I nodded my head as I said, " Just friends for now, maybe the panty thing later on."

" Ok just friends for now, hey do you want to see where I hide before classes start, you know where all the prep's don't bother us, oh man here come little miss bitch, her name is Amelia."

Then I saw a girl with very long auburn hair, her very long nails matched, and man did she stink, I'm not talking about B. O. she had on so much perfume, she must have really believed that a french bath was a good state to be in, it had to take an entire bottle to get that kind of smell, I had to gag as she passed. She had on a really short lie green dress, with emerald green shoes and a purse, it kinda reminded me of the Wizard of Oz, and with my mine I knew that the wicked witch of the north, east, and west had been taken, so I thought she would make a perfect wicked witch of the south. The only problem I probably shouldn't have whispered it to Priscilla, I could see she had heard it as she sneered at me, yeah that was really good, I went from zero to dirt with, " Wicked witch of the south."


	2. Chapter 2

Why we weep

Making bad choices

Written by Thomas G. Arndt

Chapter 2

Ok do you remember that movie where in said stupid is as stupid does, Well I just lived up to that remark, piss off the most popular girl at school, As one of my old friends would have said, ' Dude you a supra genius ain't ya.' Yeah I may have just really messed up, I guess I just served myself up four years in hell, then all attention was drawn from me by a familiar voice at the door, " Gene darling?"

I turned my head to see that lady with the strange name, one of the boys then replied. " Yes Bali?"

Well Bali was certainly easier then her full name, she then replied, " This is Jon, I've decided that you'll be his guide at the house."

He immediately replied, " Ok Bali."

I saw Priscilla's head go down, she used her finger to call me closer, she then whispered, " Gene is Amelia's main squeeze, oh she's not going to be happy about this, you see he has to give you some of his time now, and she likes to have all of his attention if you know what I mean, maybe she'll go back to stumbling Stan now that he has so much extra time, she's a real bitch."

I then whispered back, " So you've been here a long time have you?"

" No, just three weeks."

" Then how do you know all this?"

" Well there's only twenty-one, a twenty-two now, and girls like to gossip, well not me so much, anyways Bali really likes Amelia, it's almost like they're bed buddies or something, well Amelia is in her last year and she's going to have to find a new bed buddy. Well I be damned if it'll be me, I don't swing that way, I think she's leaning toward Samantha though, hey you're done, lets go to my hiding place so we don't have to whisper anymore."

" Ok."

So now she took by the hand, and I have to say it was an entirely new experience, I told you of my luck with girls didn't I, oh yeah I did. As we were leaving the guy called Gene said, " Priscilla don't take him to far, I still have to show him around."

I thought she would snap his head off, but instead she got all girlie girl on me with, " Sure Gene, a I'll go ahead and show him to all his classes if that's all right?"

He gave her a big smile as he replied, " That's ok with me, but he has to sit at the boys table for dinner."

She then put one leg behind the other, and it occurred to me she may have a crush on him, but on the other hand he seemed very genuine to me, her replied was almost a giggle, " Don't worry Gene I'll make sure, and thank you very much."

She turned away with the pinkest cheeks and proceeded you run into a very tall black girl, you heard of the ebony touch, well she definitely had that touch, and her hair had the Beyonce look to it, she immediately bowed her head and said, " Forgive me Huntress Damien, I didn't see you there, may I have your leave?"

It seemed to me that she gave her an evil sneer, and in one failed swoop she made me hate her, strange how things happen, then she replied, " Oh Miss Prissy, you may kiss my boot then you may leave my presence."

Ok that made me really mad, no one deserved to be treat like that, but to my horror as my temperature rose, she actually bent down and kissed her boot, My Momma told me never allow anyone to treat you that badly, I was a little confused as she cupped my hand and pulled me along. I was really unhappy with her, as Gene said, " Priscilla get up and don't let my new ward see you like that."

In seconds the girl that made her do that had a big smile on her face, he gave her a stare and talked to her as if she was nothing at all, " Damien do I have to have Bali give you that talk again, or are you going to be nice?"

Her face changed yet again as she pleaded with him, " Please Gene I don't want to be punished again?"

Priscilla then said, " No Gene I'm the new girl, I can take it for a little while, it's only hazing, I know Bali doesn't like it, but it's away to get by so I can fit in."

Amelia then scoffed, " Like that's going to happen."

He then said with a ginger smile, " Priscilla, Bali said you weren't to be treated like that, I believe she see's something in you, and I'll be damned if anyone should be treated like that after Bali has pick her."

The girl called Amelia then asked, " Does that include me Gene?"

" Of course Baby, you know I love you to death."

Then she got like a little school girl, it was then that I realized that he was that guy that all the school girls wanted to get with, you know like the first string quarter back on the football team, and I'm no judge of man flesh, but he may have been the best looking of all the boys I could see. I had the thought that if you put a wig on him he would be a pretty cute looking girl, everything except his hawk nose of course, and the absence of boobs, and the fact that he really didn't have a waist line, wow I'm thinking about this way to much. One thing I did notice, everyone seemed to be wearing the same sweaters, which of course I didn't have on, I mean they all had different clothes, but the same sweaters, ok this must have been some kind of uniform. The next thing I noticed that all the girls wore dresses except for Priscilla, and all the boy wore slacks and really light buttoned up shirts and dark dress shoes, well except for me, of course there were only four other boy not including me.

So in a way Priscilla and I were the odd men out so to speak, and that she was definitely the cute one, then three girls sat down with the one known as Damien. One had lovely yellow skin of a pale black person or a very tanned white person, one was definitely of Indian origin, and the last one was no mistaking, she was a very pale almost pink skinned red head white woman. They all seemed to hang off each other, and yes they all wore dresses, counting these four, with the eight that were already was in the dinning room, that made twelve, I had to wonder if the boys were the minority here, it was just right then she dragged me out. Then we came upon a boy with his hands in his pockets, he looked as if he had been whipped, I had to wonder who he was, but my answer was answered almost right immediately, when Priscilla said, " Hey Stan, how are you doing today?"

Ok I even had to admit that he was hot and I'm not even gay, of course I don't have anything against gay people, and I had to wonder why Amelia gave up on him as he made Gene look like a slug, he gave her a bright smile as he said, " Oh Priscilla, Hey I guess I'm ok, who's your new boyfriend?"

She rolled her eye's and grinned as he replied, " Oh he only arrive today, his name is Jon, did you see his mark, isn't it cool."

My mark, what was it that was so damn strange about it,he looked at it very closely, then he rubbed his head as he replied, " It's different, well at least it's something new, are you going to go out and write?"

" Yeah we have thirty minutes, if I forget will you remind me to come in for classes."

" Sure thing Kiddo, see you later."

" You bet ya, see you Stan."

So she pulled me after her, and we came to a large building that had a pool with and old iron fence around it, then she pulled me through a door that looked like it lead to a snack bar, as we went threw the screen door with the square hole in it, then the wooden door, I could see yes this once was a snack bar. As we entered it, it had a single grill, with a double frier for fries, they were both very empty and sparkling clean, then there were two side by side refrigerators. I was taking all this in, when she pulled me farther along and saying, " This is the refreshment shed, it only gets used in the summer and on guest nights, the next one is in October, you missed the last one, it was really cool, it's the only time we get to eat french fries."

I was very happy to hear that so I asked, " Wow we get to eat burgers and fries?"

" Well yes, but I can't stomach the killing of poor animals, so I only take the fries, hey do you eat meat?"

I smiled at he as I replied, " Yeah, but if you were my girlfriend I would make and exception for you, so where are we going?"

" Oh, it's called the pump room, it's for our pool, it's really quiet in there and allows me to think, you know for my poetry and stuff, Gene calls me my own dead poet society, hey do you do anything creative?"

" Yeah I draw, but I'm not very good, hey what was with you calling that one girl the huntress?"

" Oh she's the head of the Amazon's, it's kinda her title so to speak."

Ok Amazon's, I had to ask the most obvious question, " Do you mean the ones that cut off their left breasts, I thought they were all Greeks."

She smiled a hapless smile at me as she replied, " Yeah that's them, well except they never cut off their left breasts, well not anymore anyways, and they're not really them, you see you have to be excepted by them, and they're nothing but fledglings like the rest of us. Carla said she was a real potential as a warrior, but mostly men get excepted as warriors. Hey maybe you could become my protector in the future, I mean if I get excepted as a Priestess, but most Priestess have only one, but it's really cool though. I mean they can have one, a lover, and a consort, Bali only has a lover though, she's kinda funny that way, she says she can only handle one man at a time, but she's really cool, she's our first class."

" Bali is a Priestess?"

" Well she's a High Priestess, a normal Priestess is called an acolyte, I'll most likely become one of the poet's of the Vampyre Poet Society, hey have you ever heard of Robert Frost, he's one of us, I hope I become like him, do you know he's almost eight hundred years old."

" I thought he was dead?"

" Yeah the normals have to be fooled like that, it's ashamed that you have to go into obscurity like that after being in the public eye for so long, must vampire actors have to die in car crashes and the like, you know like James Dean, at least a poet is so obscure that they can age us and let us die normally, then we die normal deaths. Hey you know he only looks thirty."

" James Dean?"

" No silly, Robert Frost, Bali has a picture of him, I think that's really cool, here have a seat."

There was nothing there except a milk crate and a five gallon jug, she then moved the five gallon jug for me to sit on, she then pulled up the milk crate and sat down, she had a huge purse, you know one of those that were almost the size of a backpack, one thing you wouldn't ever see a grunge person carry. Out of it she pull a large note book with three pens, a normal one (blue), a fancy one (black), and a big one, you know the type that has four colors (black, blue, red, and green). It was strange to watch her move in between the pens, it was as if she was coloring as she wrote. Now to most people it would have been very boring, but to me it was very interesting it fascinated me how she seemed to draw in the air then move to her paper, and at the same time I was noticing all the interesting patterns in the room, I then spoke my mind, " Man I wish I had my sketch pad."

Her head came up as she asked, " Are you bored?"

" No, I would just like to draw these interesting lines, this place is kinda coll, but in a way it's also kinda restricting, I would prefer to be out side drawing trees or peoples faces, even though I'm not very good yet, that's why I thought high school was going to be so cool. I mean I would most likely fail all my classes, but to learn how to do peoples faces would be very cool, most of my faces look like cartoons, I would like to do a face that looked like one for once, but I'm really good at trees."

" That's so cool, and I wouldn't mind if my face looked like a cartoon, I mean as Bali always says, practice makes perfect, and if you make the change you'll have centuries to practice, hey maybe you'll be another Rembrandt, you know he was a vampire, well he's dead now."

" I would prefer to be another Norman Rockwell."

" He's a vampire as well, I think Leonardo tutored him, he's dead as well."

" Wow I could be tutored by Norman Rockwell."

She sighed and said, " Don't count on that, it's a rarity to be tutored."

I smiled at her and asked, " Hey could you read me one of your poems?"

She held her note book to her chest as she replied. " Not likely, I mean you're kinda personal to me."

I tried a compromise, " I'll show you one of my pictures if you like."

She had an accusatory look on her face as she said, " Would you."

" I would like to, except as I've told you I'm not very good, and in truth I wouldn't want you to laugh at me."

" Oh come on,"

" No I'm telling you the truth, they're not very good."

" No, I mean come on, it's time for class, and Bali doesn't like to be kept waiting."

" Oh, I'm sorry."

" You're apologizing for having to go to class?"

I sighed as I replied, " I guess I am, my Momma says I apologize to much."

She smiled with an almost laugh, " Wow you call you Mom, Momma?"

Well now that I'm a kick butt vampire I should stop that, so I said, " I guess I do, sorry."

She took my hand and whispered, " I think it's kinda cute."

She smelt like strawberries, and as I smelt her I had to admit, " I kinda think you look cute."

She then did something that totally took me by surprise as we heard Stan say, " Priscilla it's almost time for class."

Yeah she kissed me on the cheek, my Momma and Grandma had kissed me, but never a God for honest girl, my face got really warm and my head was spinning a little, I knew I had to be blushing, was this love, how could I know, it wasn't like I had much experience. Could I love a girl that I had just met, Momma would tell me it was puppy love and to watch out, hell I didn't even know what puppy love was, she then took my hand and said in a low tone, " You know you're really cute when you blush, lets go to our first class."

She dragged me along again, all I wanted was for her to kiss my cheek again, so she pulled me into a class that had eight seats, yeah I said seats and not desks, there were already three kids sitting there, I was in a class with nothing but girls. Bali was there sitting on the her desk, Priscilla pulled me to a set of drawers, you know the type you see in kindergarten classes, she pulled out her book and then handed me mine, I then sat right behind her, she then pulled out her very fancy pen and note book, so I raised my hand, Bali then smiled at me and asked, " Yes Jon?"

" Ma'am I didn't bring anything to write with, should I go back to my room and get a pencil and note book?"

" No Jon, Priscilla just likes to doodle while I talk, and we like to keep it very informal, only if you feel you may need to take notes, oh my, and your room isn't yours anymore, I'm having a couple of the professors move you to room nineteen. You will have to remake your bed, but I think Priscilla can help you with that, I hand a feeling you two would be friends, Priscilla tell him why that's such good new to you?"

She almost giggled as she replied, " Because it's right next to mine, but Amanda is on the other side, I'll just have to deal with that."

" Now remember the rules, and maybe she'll come around, besides her and Jon have something in common, I mean I think it's only right she help him also, after all they're the same race aren't they."

" A, wait are you a Cherokee Indian."

I put my head down and replied, " Part."

Bali then asked, " Half right?"

" Quarter, my Momma is half, I think that's why my hair is so light, my Momma said I got it from my Dad, my sister and me, my other sister has dark hair like my Momma."

" Well Jon it's your heritage isn't it?"

" Yeah Ma'am."

" Two things Jon, first always be proud of your heritage, and second it you ever have a question just ask it, you never have to raise your hand here, we're here to lead you into your new life not restrict your growth."

Priscilla was glowing at me as she said, " Didn't I tell you Bali was really cool."

I sighed and said, " Yeah right up until I start to fail, then I'll be after class all the time, and working on my homework until I fall asleep."

Bali laughed as she said, " My dear boy, you can never fail any of our classes, lets just say we use a really lenient learning curve here, and we never assign homework here to speak of, it's far to stressful going through the change and all. Amanda is in her second year so I'll just have her catch you up, and Priscilla can also help you, well until you get caught up, you can go into each others room as long as you follow the rules."

" What rules Ma'am?"

" Boys and girls can go into each others room as long as they leave their doors open, or unless you've bonded, but that almost never happens."

" Bonded Ma'am?"

Priscilla smiled as she replied, " It's almost like being married, most vampyres do it late in life, and I don't think it has anything to do with sex, am I right Bali?"

She sighed as she replied, " Yes Priscilla, it's far deeper then that, have you been reading ahead again?"

" Kinda, I just wanted to read the romantic stuff, you know me being a poet and all."

" Ok, lets go ahead and get started."

So she went on with class and I have to say that it was really, really cool, is was about how to be and what it was like to be a vampyre, the next class was about economics, I thought it would be a math class, but it was about haw to give back to the public, and how to earn the money to help you give back to the public. The next one was a really strange one for me, rights and rituals, to me it was a class about a lot of stuff I wouldn't need anyways, most people that did this stuff were Priestess and only women could be selected to be them. Then came Spanish, man I barely knew how to speak English if you know what I mean, man was I glad that they graded on a learning curve, then came lunch, finally a class I knew I could pass, ha, ha, I followed Priscilla to the salad bar. She had a great salad with all kinds of different kinds of vegetables, her salad was unbelievable, I followed her example except for the ham, turkey and cheese I put on the top, and for dressings we had vinegar and oil, Italian, or Ranch, we both took Ranch. While we walked she explained the reasons why I shouldn't have the turkey and ham, but hey I'm a man and a man has to have has meat right, I mean I can't really be that wrong.

Our next class was an elective, except they were all crossed out, and all we could take was fencing or gymnastics, I felt fencing was more manly, now I have to say that all my professors were tattooed in one way or another, but nothing prepared me for what I saw next. He was a small Asian man, his name was Callion, his entire body was covered in tattoo's, only his face was almost bare, how did I know this, he wore those really loose oriental pants, I think there made out of silk, he was called the Sword Master. He had a grace that could only be imagined in movies, there were only four girls in this class, and counting me all six boys, except for this class all my classes had the same four girls, there was and odd number and I made it an even number, but he took the time to help me spare with one of the other boys. He was very careful to have girl spar with girl and boy spar boy, he had to be old world, so I wasn't surprised when the boy told me his hometown was some place called Shin Shu, I have no idea of I spelled that right. To say he was good would be like saying store bought sugar cookies were good when you could have homemade, that would be plain stupid, he made me use a bamboo sword as I was just new, I think he went really easy on me, one thing he told me was never go for the easy kill.

He was tough, but really, really cool, then came our last class, I went with Priscilla as I want to really be with her, we came in and a woman said, " Ok fledglings you know what to do, Jon don't be a stranger, if you have any questions just ask one of the girls, now the horses are waiting."

So that's the strange smell I smelt, I followed the four girls into the barn, yeah there would only one class I would escape these four girls, well all except one, and I kinda like her, I really wish I would have spared with her in Callion's class, but he would have never allowed that. They all went to a small room and got rubber glove and boots, ok I had no idea of what we were about to do so I asked, " Hey Priscilla what are we supposed to do here?"

She smiled at me as she replied, " Clean out the horses stalls, then we can ride the horse of our choice."

Ok, ride a horse of my choice, I had my license, but I hadn't even really driven a car yet, so picking a horse to ride seemed daunting, well cleaning out a horses stall seemed easy enough, so I asked the most obvious question, " Ok, how do you do that?"

She then pointed at two stalls then a pitch fork and said, " You use that to get all the poopie into one pile, then you get a big shovel and throw it into the wheel barrel, since your the only boy could you be a dear and empty it for us, I mean all the poopie out of the wheel barrel." she gave me a smile that said I know I'm asking a lot, and then added, " then as we're done just saddle up a horse and come ride with us, isn't that cool."

Ok cool wouldn't be the word I'd use, I mean these things are big, I mean really, really big and they move a lot, how did you get them to sit long enough to get a saddle on it, and how in the world do you put a saddle on a horse anyways. So as the nervous young boy I was I answered her with a shuttered smile, " Yeah really cool."

She smiled at me and went to work, I did the same as I knew this would be the easy part for me, my Momma said I was the one that always kept the house so clean, I don't know about that, but I knew I could clean up after a few horses. So I put on the gloves and boots and went to work, my two horse were a really cool looking white one, and a gray one, I decided to do the white ones stall first, I could see the floor was covered with hay, so I scraped it all off the cement floor, oh I had to walk him just out of the stall. That seemed to be very easy to do, and I had to empty the wheel barrel out twice, and I put down new hay, then I placed him back in, then I did the gray horses stall as all the girls left with their horses, I repeated what I did for the white horses stall, all this seemed to take so much time, I had to wonder how the girls got done so fast. There had to be an easier way, and I was putting the new hay in the stall when the lady came in and said, " Jon what are you doing?"

I smiled at her and wiped the sweat off my face as I replied, " I did the best job I could, my Momma always said a job worth doing was worth doing right the first time, but I don't know all the short cuts the girls obviously know yet."

She laughed as she said to me, " Jon we have cement floors, all you had to do was remove the waist, we have crews come in on Saturday to do a good job, they're a good cleaning crew, they use special sanitizers to clean the stalls, you kind of went a little over board."

I had to look down as I said, " Sorry Ma'am."

She smiled at me again and added, " No harm done Jon, Just finish up and take a horse out, but you won't have time to saddle one up, so you'll have to walk one of them, just take a long lead to give them enough room to run, they're in the same room where you got your cleaning equipment from."

So I nodded to her as she turned and went into her office, then I went and finished the last horses stall, the gray horse felt so familiar to me, but the white one was so cool, so I emptied the wheel barrel one last time, well it was very easy to figure out where the leads were. Then I stood there not knowing which one I should take, I really wanted to take the white one out, but it seemed that the gray one was almost calling me, the lady came out carrying the biggest black cat I had ever seen, it had a small white spot on its forehead. She was scratching that spot as she asked, " Is there a problem Jon?"

" Yes Ma'am, I really want to take the white one out, but the gray one seems to be calling me, I'm really at a lose to know which one to take out."

" You must always take the one that is talking to you, and if Shadow is calling you, then you must take her out."

" Her Ma'am, you see how well I know horses, I didn't even know she was a girl, well I guess I should take her out then."

" Jon you have never been around horses before?"

" No Ma'am, only had a dog once, we always wanted a pet, but Momma always said they were to much work, and they cost to much, you know with all the bills and such."

" So you've never rode a horse?"

I sighed as I replied, " No Ma'am, never been on a farm in my life."

She looked at me with a strange look as she asked, " But Jon you've at least seen one at the fair right, I mean this is Oklahoma."

" Ma'am I've only been here for now about three, no almost four weeks."

That seemed to make her smile really big as she asked, " Where did you live before this?"

I kinda gave her a nervous smile as I replied, " Detroit Ma'am."

" Well then you'll need lessons, I guess we'll have to start Monday, Just take out your mare and run with her the first lap. As you do feed her the lead, then let her go on her own from there, just hold onto the rope as she runs. Maybe three laps, then bring her in and feed them both, have one of the girls show you how, then come to me on Monday, then I'll show you everything, I mean you just don't jump on a horse and ride it, now go run your horse."

" Thank you Ma'am."

She nodded to me then went into her office, I then clipped the silver clasp onto Shadow's rope harness, I led her out as she had told me, then I ran with her and let out the lead as she was definitely faster then I was, Priscilla then rode up next to me. She looked all majestic the way she rode her horse, even her hair seemed to move in a royal way, I was having a little problem with the lead, so she said to me, " Just let it loose you don't have to hold it so tight, what took you so long anyways?"

I let loose with more lead as I replied, " I cleaned their stalls to well, the lady told me just to lead her, I'm kinda new at this."

" The Horse Mistress's name is Felicia, I'm sorry Jon I should have stayed and made sure you knew," she kept in time with Shadows lead as she moved her head she asked, " do you know how to ride?"

" No, the horse mistress said she'll teach me Monday, she was really cool about it, hey you look nice on that horse, it must be second nature to you."

" Well my family has four horses, one for each of us, well everyone except my Dad, I don't think he likes horses, but he loves the idea of owning them though, like you can ever really own a horse, it's all property to him, the man never passes an attempt to invest. He saw me becoming a vampire as a way to invest in the unknown, you know a way to look into a new investment, I think he sees me and my brother more as an investment now, my sister is still something to marry off, how many rounds did she tell you to do?"

" Three, maybe more if I have time."

One of the girls then said, " Idiot!"

I got a little heated, " HEY, I"M NOT AN IDIOT!"

Another then said, " Dork."

Priscilla then gave her an evil sneer as she replied, " Sarah he didn't know, and Gloria please, do you want me to tel him how you landed the other day when Thunder threw you, and girl can you put on some underwear, no one needs to see your butt like that."

Ok I'm a guy that's never seen a bare woman's anything, so yes I would like to see that, but to keep my mind off of that I started to pull Shadow's lead in, as I did I had to ask, " She doesn't wear underwear, isn't that unsanitary for all the horses?"

She smiled at me and said, " You see even Jon doesn't want to see that, it's disgusting isn't it?"

What was I going to say, ' Priscilla you're totally wrong yes I would like to see that,' of course not, so I said the safest thing I could think of, " Yeah."

Then the second girl said, " They he must be gay."

Ok I didn't have anything against gay's, but my next response might have said I did, " HEY I'M NOT GAY!"

Priscilla then got off her horse and pulled up next to me, and she said, " A little slower Jon, and she's only jealous that you're more into me then you are of her, here hold my horse and I'll show you how it's done."

We changed places, and she looked so the professional as she brought the lead in, well I had to be proud of my girl, well it wasn't as if we were going out or anything yet, as she showed me how to do it all the other girls went in. So I asked another question, " Hey you ride your horse one way, and the other girls ride their horses another, why do they ride with their legs on one side?"

She replied with one word, " Skirts."

" Excuse me?"

" Skirts, I mean you know you're going to ride a horse, so why can't you just go in and put on some pants, it's all for the few boys that are here, I mean you could use one brain cell once in awhile and think, man I love it here, but some times I feel that they're raising brain dead idiots."

" Priscilla you could be nicer to them, I mean you don't want to sink to there level do you?"

She smiled at me, then did something very new to me, she planted a kiss right on my lips, I had no real idea of what to do next, as my face heated up, she pulled away very quickly and recover just as quickly, her face had to be as red as mine. As I was looking at her thinking of taking another kiss she said, " Oh I'm sorry, I mean no one has been that nice to me in a long time."

We walked into the barn, stalls, or what ever, hand and hand, with our horses in our off hands, we knocked shoulder's for the first time, it was all so new to me, I had no idea of what was happening, she then whispered, " Hey I'll understand."

" Understand what Priscilla."

" There having steak for dinner, I know you just want to be one of the boys, I'll understand if you eat a streak, I'm a Vegan and as most would have a problem with that, and don't worry if I sit alone, I'm kinda used to it, even my fami;y didn't like to eat with me."

" Oh Priscilla that's terrible, a family should always eat together, I mean my family was so big that I always had to eat some place else, but I always made sure they always knew where I was, my Momma and I always ate in the living room."

" Don't worry Jon, I'm use to it, we can go to the entertainment center and still be together."

" Hey girl I'll always be there for you, I'll just start to eat with Gene, then I'll make my excuses and come over and eat with you, I mena I kinda like you and stuff."

" I kinda like you to, but no Gene is your guide into your new world, you have to sit with him, maybe instead of the entertainment room we can go to our special place."

" I would really like that Priscilla, hey and maybe I'll go get my sketch pad and draw with you, or you, I think that would be really cool."

" Then it's a date."

A date, did sh mean a real date, would this be our very first date, she then showed me how to feed the horses, I was going on my first real date, I was so happy as she showed me how to mix the oats with the hay. Then we went to the dinning room, she showed me around as we waited for dinner to be ready, but I was to far gone on the thought of the possibility of my first date, but I didn't know that time was about to catch up on me. I smiled as she twirled under my arm, and I was so happy I almost didn't here Gene say, " Hey Jon over here."

She then pushed me toward him, I had a hard time joining them, all I wanted was to be with her, then she sat by the out side door all alone, it broke my heart to watch everyone just walk passed her and her head go down, all I could think of is how I was going to excuse myself so I could be with her. Gene leaned over and whispered to me, " Man she likes it that way."

That didn't mean my heart wasn't still breaking for her, he then added, " You should have seen how she almost bit off the Huntress's head when she tried to sit next to her."

So my girl had spunk, I had to be proud of her for that, then I had to wonder if she would like me calling her my girl, then I put my head down, I felt a little guilty, then my guilt sky rocketed as a plate was put in front of me, it had the biggest steak I had ever seen. It had to be a T-bone steak as the bone was shaped like a T, the only steak I had ever eaten before was a round steak when my Daddy brought them home, be side that was red potatoes cut in inch cube with green onions, and next to the was creamed peas, I hate creamed anything. I then picked up my steak knife and fork, I then saw Gene's hand come over mine, he then whispered to me, " Bali has to bless the food dude."

Ok I wasn't a praying man, well I guess in a way I was, you know, ' God pleas let me pass this test,' but over food, never, ok maybe during Christmas dinner, my Momma always made us say grace then, oh on New Years day when Momma would pray, ' Dear God thank you for letting us make it through one more year.' I put my utensils back down and turned my attention back to her, it was really breaking my heart as I saw her there all alone, Gene then whispered to me, " Man you've got a really bad for her don't you?"

I whispered back, " Yeah I think I do."

" That's cool man, we'll get our meeting over with and you can go be with her, dude."

" Thanks Gene, you're a really cool guide."

" Hey man, I do what I can."

I started to feel a little light headed as the door flew open, the bang of the door made my head spring up, and with a little spin I saw Bali, she seemed to float into the room, yeah that may have been my head, she then stood in the center of the room. Her head then snapped up and her arm's seemed to float up as she spoke, " Thank you goddess for all that you have given us," her voice seemed to boom, " and thank you for guarding my children, Jon is a prince that we've received this very day, and please allow our food to nourish us, Blessed be to you."

Everyone then repeated what she said, I was a little slow as I was new, Gene then whispered, " Jon you can eat right now, and wasn't it cool that she mentioned you in her prayer, there must be something special about you." I then pointed at my mark and he came back with, " Your mark, but she won't point you out for just that, dude."

Ok first my strange mark, and now I'm the special kid, right now I could have a raging case of diarrhea or just plan faint, yeah that would be good, I felt like the only burnt out light in a display of hundreds, No one saw the lights for the one burnt out one. I then cut a piece of meat and started to chew it, as my head got light again. Then I ate three potatoes, two pieces of steak, and two mouth fulls of cream peas, I'm not even sure if I tasted any of it, I tried to put the third piece into my mouth when I felt sick to my stomach, so I had to allow it to fall out of my mouth. Gene then in a worried sound asked, " Jon are you ok?"

The room was spinning and I tried to answer, " I dun know, my stomash hurs, and da rom won't stop . . ."

Gene yelled, " PRISCILLA . . ."

Then I was floating down the hall, I lifted my head, and will myself to say, " Wuz happy maan, oop."

Gene then said, " Don't worry dude, you had a long day, it's just catching up with you, hey Priscilla . . . "

The next thing I remember was Gene standing over me saying, " Dude just lay on this big pillow, Priscilla and me will take care of you, man . . ."

When my head hit my Grandma's pillow that was it I was the last thing I remember, until I saw the giant orb in the sky, and it seemed that my skin was on fire.


	3. Chapter 3

Why we weep

A very new thing

Written by Thomas G. Arndt

Chapter 3

It scare the hell out of me, I almost jumped one hundred feet, and you can imagine how hard that is in this twelve by twelve foot room. Then I looked at the long rectangle window on the west side of the room, it was the position of the window that allowed me the knowledge that the sun was setting, the sun shined brightly through the window because nothing covered it. Then I spoke out loud to myself, " Man I'm going to have to cover that some how."

I then pulled the cover taunt, as I did this, I saw a violet piece of paper at the edge, I picked it up as I fluffed mu Grandma's pillow, then I threw over my Grandma's quilt. I have to say that I loved that my grandma gave me it, as The knit thing that it was, it was almost always over her couch, I used to love and curl up in the thing on her couch, the colors in it were really cool, browns, coppers, yellows, with a hint of orange here and there. It was like a piece of home, and I love that also. I could see all these colors in an Oklahoma sunset, in its own right it was as if it was a piece of Oklahoma. The shy seemed to always turn a turquoise, then it would go a certain number of browns and coppers, with just a hint of orange and yellows.

Oh I really wish I knew how to paint, it would be cool to replicate one Oklahoma sunset, speaking of colors my eye's were drawn to the violet paper, I didn't have to open it as I grabbed it, I already knew that Priscilla's book was full of this kind of paper. So I opened it up and as I realizes that I was only wearing my underwear, I folded myself in a corner where the sun couldn't reach, then I looked at it and realized how she used her pens to almost draw a picture in words. Then I read the piece of paper; John (well I'll have to correct her on that, my name is Jon without an H). Hey man when you sleep you really sleep, and you looked really cute (she thinks I'm cute), well I'll be up at five thirty to take my shower, I hate being in there with all those naked bodies (I kinda hate that to), if you have the time come and join me and we'll talk, kay. Your best friend Priscilla.

Ok, so I totally misunderstood the end of the letter, I put my hand into the sun and felt it's full discomfort, you see I saw my grandpa do this to see what time it was. I felt really stupid as I saw the watch on my arm, so I drew it back to see that it was five thirty-two, I immediately undressed and put a towel around my waist. Then as I left I saw two things, one is that there was a digital clock above my door, and as I closed my door, the bed wasn't that hospital variety, it was made of old wood and had a wagon wheel at the foot and head, they seemed to form both the foot and head. That was really cool, I almost felt like a cowboy or something, but at that present time I only thought of one thing, and I must have sprinted down to the showers. As I reached for the door something kinda smacked me upside my head, it was the horror that I may have misunderstood her letter, so what was I to do, I mean I was standing there and except for a towel I was basically nude.

In her letter she had said that she hated all those nude bodies around her, and did she mean just all the girl nude bodies and not mine, and in all that I knew I knew how that felt, and I knew that I didn't want to screw this up. So how was I going to approach this, open the door and say, ' Hey Priscilla I didn't understand your letter, did you want me to come in and join you in the shower,' yeah that would fly like a lead balloon. Well maybe go in and act surprised and say, ' Well your letter implied that you wanted me to join you,' oh even better, she would hit me until I was black and blue. Maybe run away, yeah and if she catches a whiff of me I become the strange peeping tom, so what was I to do, I couldn't win for losing. So I barely opened the door, and said in an even voice, " Hey Priscilla I just wanted to tell you that I'm wake."

Then she screamed, " JON GET OUT! I'm nude in here."

Yeah she went from hot to an almost even tone, I think that was a good sign as I replied, " Sorry, I just wanted you to know,"

She then said in a quick voice, " Ok, ok, I know now get out."

Ok I definitely misunderstood so I said, " Ok, I think I'll take a shower after you, kay?"

" All right, now can you please get out."

" Gotcha Babe, I'm going now."

" Ok now go!"

" Gone."

I then closed the door and went to my room, I left my door open so I could see her pass by, I then put the small brown bag on my lap as I realized the disaster that I had barely avoided. Where was my head, why couldn't I add it all together, was I falling that hard for a girl I barely even knew, I watched the clock in the anticipation of her walking by. After about twenty minutes I heard a whooshing sound, then maybe a minute or two later she appeared at my door, all she had on was her towel wrapped around her breasts. She had her black hair in between her hand in another towel, she was trying to rub it dry, I was thankful that my bag was on my lap, as it was I would have shown how much I like the picture I was seeing. She was a vision of loveliness as she smiled at me, I then returned her smile as I realized how much she look like Alice, if you don't know the Alice I'm talking about you need to read more, then she turned and went to her room, I had to wonder if cold showers really worked.

So I stood up and went to the shower's, I decided not to test the cold water theory, it was all I could do not to imagine her without that towel. In time my problem went away and I felt safe to leave the shower, then I moved to my room and got dressed as quickly as I could, all I had left in the pants department was ratty one and ratty two as my Momma had named them. I went to my cabinet and retrieved my shoes and my sketch pad, I felt that it was probably safe to put my shoes on in her room, so I walked to her door and knocked. With my light knock she said, " You can come in Jon, I'm decent."

Ok. Now I was in for a little surprise of my own, she was laying on her bed in a green dress with that see through material over the top, it was the kind you would see at a prom, so where was my Priscilla and who left this pod baby behind. She had combed her hair flat, and I was unsure if I like it that way or the other way with all the spikes, I have to say that her hair was a little longer then Alice's hair was it Twilight, not that I ever had money to see the movie. But I had to shake my head at her as this truly wasn't Priscilla, it had to be what she thought I wanted to see, she then got a scowl on her face and folded her arm's as she put out her lower lip and said, " You don't like it."

I kept shaking my head as I answered, " Babe I love it, but it's not you, and all I want is you."

" A . . . you called me Babe."

With a shaky hand I moved my hair and said, " Yeah I did, I'm sorry if you don't like it."

" I guess I kinda do like it, do that mean that were now going out steady?"

I gave her a nervous smile as I replied, " Well I like you and you sorta like me right, so I guess that would be a yes, well unless you don't want to?"

She bit her lower lip and then replied, " Well ok then, but we'll keep it silent until we're sure."

I nodded my head as I said, " Babe anything for you, well because all I see is you anymore, it's like you're my whole world . . . That's ok, right?"

" Well ok then, help me with this zipper, I think you're right about this thing, Anyways I thought you might like it, hey is that your sketch pad?"

" Yeah, I thought that after breakfast we could work together, you know in our special place."

" Can I see."

I said as I worked on her zipper, " I don't know, I really am not very good."

Why, just why do they have to make those really small claps so small and hard to work on girls dresses, she then said, " Ah come on, I promise I won't laugh."

the clasp came undone as I made a compromise, " Ok, but only if you allow me to read one of your poem's."

She then pulled off her dress and said, " Deal, then you can tell me how bad I am."

Ok I had seen my sisters in less then that, but she wasn't my sister, and seeing her in just a bra and panties may have been a little more then what I was ready for, so I adverted my eye's as I said, " Babe I'll go to my room while yoy change."

I think my voice may have gotten deeper, she then said to me, " Jon we're going out now, right?"

This had to be the easiest answer I ever came up with, " Yeah!"

Boy that was a real smooth response as she asked, " And maybe we might take it to another level one day, right?"

My smooth responses were at a high, " I hope so."

" Jon it's only underwear."

I slightly lifted my head I responded, " I'm afraid I may show you just how much I like to see you like that."

" But it'll be all for me right?"

I gave her a shy smile as I replied, " It will always be for you, I told you I've only got eye's for you."

I think I may have been a little hurt by the question, but then she said to me, " Close the door and help me get dressed . . . So I'm your first girlfriend . . . oh."

" Well at least my very first real one."

" Your very first real one, what kind of girlfriend have you had before?"

" You know arm candy, well I'm no Brad Pitt, it was more in the order to say, hey look at me I have a boyfriend type of deal, more show then normal, even though I can't say that felt normal, most of the time I would be on their arm until a better model came along."

Her face brightened as she said, " You know I hate those kind of girls, they always use and use without no thought of what they're doing to the boy."

" Yeah, but what does it say about the boy that couldn't even see that he was being used," I gave a sigh as I added, " in Michigan it seemed that I was used a lot, except for the one girl I wanted."

" So I'm sloppy seconds?"

" Well no, I can't say that I felt this way for her, well it was just I wanted to see with her, and she was so nice to everyone, well everyone except me, she wouldn't even give me the time of day, I can't say what would have happened with her, but if she had happened then we wouldn't be, so it's kinda fate or something. I'm sorry Priscilla she was just before you, and if she had given me the time of day things may have been different, and it would have been the worst thing ever, I mean I would have never met you and known this feeling, so I have to say that in my mind it was meant to be."

She sighed and said two things, " You're kinda a word smith when you're nervous, so what was her name?"

I didn't want to tell her, I mean I had to, but yes I didn't want to, and I really wanted to see her, and she was just so nice to everyone, so I felt compelled as I blurted out, " Anna Massey, she was the prettiest girl I had ever seen until I met you, but she had auburn hair, I've never really like auburn hair (I lied), well maybe Priscilla Presley in Dynasty, or was that Dallas, well I never watched them, it was my sisters really."

" Oh that explains why you knew about her, I thought it was funny when you compared me to her."

" Hey I never compared you to her, you're far prettier then her, bedsides she's to old for me even if I had, and I really like you, in a way you're more real to me, and in a way you're my dream woman."

With doubt on her face she said, " Dream woman, are you for real, I'm your dream woman."

By this time she was almost fully dressed, she had on a skirt, you know one of those that were a skirt and shorts, they were dark green with very light red lines in it, I think they call it plaid. She also had on a forest green T-shirt, the type that you would call short sleeve, except the sleeves are shorter, all this time I was concentrating on talking to her, so it had never occurred to me that she had gotten dressed. I had to smile as she bent over to get some tube socks, and I thought I could still help if I got her some shoes, I looked into her cabinet and saw she had shoes stacked on top of shoes, she had to have like three billion pair, so I made the off hand comment, " Wow you have a lot of shoes."

She smiled at me and said, " My Mother always said a woman can never have enough shoes, she always buys me a new pair, well we've only had one visit and she didn't bring any that time, but I'm sure she'll make up for it next visit."

I pulled out a pair of boots that looked like combat boots, except they had two inch heels all the way around, I put them up to her and she nodded her head as I said, " I only have two pair, these and my good pair, but we were kinda poor, and my good shoes are hard on my ankles."

She smiled at me and said, " So you're really shoe poor then."

" Yeah you could say that, my Momma always said to change your socks so your shoes don't smell, you know from when your feet sweat."

" Feet sweat, eew, you really love your Mom don't you?"

" Yeah, It's her, then it's Grandma, wait now it's you, then her, then Grandma are the smartest women I know."

" Even smarter then Bali?"

" Well I'll have to see about her, but for right now that's my line up."

" I bet she becomes number one."

" Maybe number two, I can't see how she can replace you."

" Flatterer, your so sweet to me," she then leaned over and gave me a quick peck on the lips.

I had to look at her, and then we heard a door slam open, so I quickly said, " Hey maybe we should open the door now."

" Ok, lets go eat, but let me make sure the coast is clear first."

So we moved to the door, I kept the door in between me and her, then as she came around to tell me the coast was clear, I gave her a quick peck and whispered, " I hate all this hiding, why don't we just show the world that we love one another."

She smiled at me as she repositioned her head and we were nose to nose, so I gave her a better kiss on the lips, she wrapped her arm's around me, then she drew slightly away and said, " I'm doing this for you."

" What if I want to show the world?"

As we kissed again she pushed we away and gasped, " If you don't stop that we might just do that, I really am doing it for you, now lets go eat breakfast."

" All I want to do is eat you."

" Don't be nasty, now lets go eat."

We then went out her door and I took her hand and bumped her shoulder, then we walked into the kitchen and she put in my arm's the bowls, cereal, and milk, then she asked, " Honey dew or cantaloupe?"

I then replied, " I love musk melon."

" Musk what?"

" Cantaloupe, I'm sorry that's what we call them in Michigan."

" Musk melon it is then."

We then went to our table as gene came in and asked, " Priscilla are you ever going to take a shower?"

I immediately replied, " She took a shower before anyone got up."

" Oh, Gene said, then added with a surprised look, " OOOH!"

She quickly added, " Separate showers pea brain, man get your mind out of the gutter."

" Hey just being a man Priscilla."

She started to open her mouth and I quickly said, " Be nice Priscilla."

" Hey Jon you maybe the best thing that ever happened to her, well anyways I should go ahead and get something to eat."

The best thing that ever happened for her, well that was new to me, and I had to think she may have been the best thing that had ever happened to me, and I had to ask, " Ok, what's on the schedule for today?"

She replied with a smile on her face, " Well first we watch a tape, it'll be only an hour so we can change into our best clothes, then we'll all get into the bus's and go to temple."

" Ok problem."

" What is it Jon?"

" Momma always told me to wear my best to school, so I've already worn my best clothes, all I have to wear is a pair of pants worse then these, I could hit myself, I heard her talk about temple and I didn't even think about saving my best pants."

" Well Bali will be in to start the movie, Just ask her about it then, she'll understand if you don't have anything good to wear, just explain it like you did to me." I poured the box of cereal into my bowl before I realized it was a box of Granola, I must have made a sound because she asked, " Don't you like Granola?"

" Not really, I should have said something, I usually eat Honey Hut Cheerio's, I figured you don't have to put sugar on it, and it's supposed to be good for you."

" Go ahead and try it, I mean it's honey flavored, you just might like it."

" If I have to grab the sugar you won't be mad at me will you?"

" Well no, it was my mistake, and I kinda like those to, I just don't like all the processing in it."

I then poured my milk into it and noticed that it was skim milk, well I was able to keep from making a sound because skim milk tasted like water to me, well up until I took my first mouth full, you know what, it wasn't that bad. I leaned close to her and whispered, " Hey it does taste good, is it ok if I sit next to you?"

She sighed and whispered back, " I think this is best." I looked down at the table and she asked, " Jon it's ok, we're the same if we sit across from one another as if we sat next to one another."

" Yeah, But it's harder to smell you from over here."

" What did you say?"

" I like how you smell."

" Oh. Then I, a, well then I a, I guess it will be ok, a I guess."

Ok she was completely uncomfortable, so I waited until Gene went out the door, then I moved closer to her and whispered as I sat down in the chair next to her, " Hey I bet no one notices, plus I want to do this while no one is in here."

Now I had no experience at this, so I leaned over and gave her the deepest kiss I could, she then wrapped her arm's around my neck, then I pulled slightly away and whispered, " That's ok right?"

She then gave me a gentle kiss and replied, " That was good, a I mean you tasted good."

Then she returned the favor, and you could say that we were off to the races, and the only thing that brought us out of it was Gene's loud voice saying, " Are you kidding O. U. is going to kick Texas's ass, if we could bet I'd put money down on them this year."

All right and as O football team we broke our huddle almost as fast, she then said in a gasp, " Jon lick your lips."

I did and tasted strawberries on them, and I had to whisper back, " I think you taste good as well, I mean most of you tastes like honey, but your lips taste like strawberries, I love strawberries a lot."

She leaned close and whispered, " That's my lip gloss, do you really like it?"

I had to think for a moment and then replied, " Well yes I do, but in truth you taste better, what other flavors do you have?"

" Grape and cherry, well more like black cherry."

" Black cherries, I haven't had them since I left Michigan, well not since my Dad divorced me Momma." I then grew very quiet and she then asked, " Jon what's wrong?" I had to shake my head as I couldn't talk about it, she then whispered, " I understand, it's hard to talk about."

I had to tell her as I was sure I loved her, so I said in a very low squeaky voice, " The, that was the first t, time I saw my Momma cry . . . it hurt me so bad, I, I still have a hard time with it, th, that was the first time I became the man of the house, I, I just couldn't bare to watch her like that."

I let out a heavy sigh with a shutter, she put her arm around me and whispered, " It's ok Jon, we'll never talk about it again, all right?"

All I could do was nod my head, we then ate our cereal in silence, and as we got to our musk melon I whispered, " Thanks Priscilla."

" Hey what's a girlfriend for."

I had to reply as I wanted her to know how special she was to me, " To love and be loved until the end of time, I just wish we could go public, I, I just want everyone to know how special you are to me."

" I'm doing it for you."

" I know it, I don't understand it, but I know."

She smiled at me as she said, " I'll try to explain it while we're in my room changing into my dress for temple."

I sighed as I said, " I don;t think that's such a good idea."

" What?"

" I mean unless you like showing your business to everyone else." She looked confused so I added, " The door policy, I mean the door has to remain open remember."

" Oh I forgot, thanks for reminding me."

" Hey what's a good boyfriend for anyways."

After they were all done they went into the kitchen and sprayed off all their plates and bowls, we all did this for the cook, he thought that maybe they should push them into the washer also. But he allowed her to pull him along to two bar stools at a small bar that had a total of three, there was a separation that had five on the other side, if they took out the separation the room would be half again as large. There was what looked like a card table, it filled the room and had places for six players, just past the separation there was a huge couch with a large chair and a little couch he had to think was called a love seat, he kinda wish they were sitting there. All five stools filled up along with the couch, they could barely see the television, a couple of the girls were giggling, he had to wondered if they were giggling at them, but how could they know that Priscilla and he were a couple, so he thought maybe they were laughing at a good joke. As all the kids filled in he decide to take the inactive and kiss her again and kiss her, she then kissed him back, then their kiss got deeper and deeper, this time it was easier to break as he heard two more girls giggle. He knew he was extremely light headed and wanted more, he felt a strange feeling of nervousness, it didn't seem to be resonating from him. He watched where she was looking, it was the two girls up front, it seemed that she was nervous that they may have seen them, Jon pulled her closer to comfort her and with this she seemed to relax.

He then lifted her face and was about to start up where they left off, but slowed as he felt how nervous she was, so he whispered, " Babe will they turn off the lights?" She nodded her head, so he continued, " Then we'll pick up on where we ended when they turn out the lights." She slowly nodded her head, so he put his arm around her tighter, she didn't resist as he did this, then Bali came in and said, " Ok Kiddo's it's time."

She then moved and put a DVD in the player, and waited until everyone got settled in, then she said, " Ok, if I'm not here when the film finishes, Gene come and get me."

For some reason her eye's seemed to hang on us, but she couldn't have known what we were doing could she, but I put my hand up and she asked, " What is it Jon?"

I cleared my throat as I replied, " Bali I'm sorry, but Priscilla told me we had to wear our best for temple tonight, all of mine are in my wash, I should have known better and saved my best jeans, again I'm really very sorry."

" Your best clothes are jeans?"

" Yes Ma'am, again I'm really sorry."

" This will never do, Gene tomorrow take him shopping will you, come to my office and get the house card, I'm sorry Gene, but the stores won't open until ten in the morning, can you handle that for me?"

Gene nodded his head so she added, " I think a navy, no a heather gray, yes that will do very well, also a red, royal blue, and black shirt to go with them, and the proper ties to go along with them please, ok now that that's settled lets start the movie."

I looked at Priscilla and asked, " What just happened?"

She smiled at me and replied, " She just ordered your guide to get you a suit, I think she looks into the future to see what will look best on you, isn't she the coolest, she seems to know what will look best on you, she did the same with Naomi and you should see the dress."

Ok I didn't have much time to think, one she was buying me a suit, and somehow she knows what will look good on me, and as the room grew dark Priscilla started to kiss me again, and my Momma didn't raise a fool, so I returned the favor and kissed her back. During the film we were only interrupted once with Amelia whispering, " Will you two get a room." I mean it was so quiet we almost didn't hear her, so no heads turned to us, as we both turned our heads and gave her an evil sneer, and why she felt the need to sit right next to us I have no idea, in time I knew I would have to have words with her. We didn't come up for air again until the lights came on, we could feel all eye's on us, but unnerved us like Bali's, it was as if she was boring a hole through us, ok now I had to figure that we were in a lot of trouble, Gene turned off the DVD. She slowly turned her head and said, " Ok, now get ready for temple, Jon I want to see you in my office, I'll be there in a moment."

Then we got up slowly as everyone started all the cat calls, Our hands never left each others as we made our way out to the lobby, the kids were merciless, you should have heard some of the names they called us. At the hall that led to our rooms is where we had to part, it felt as if I was letting her go so she could survive, just like in one of my Momma's favorite movies. As I went into the office I saw Veronica sitting there so I said, " I think I'm in trouble with Bali, she said she wanted to see me in her office."

She then led me into a dark office, she had em sit down in one of the two leather chairs, then she lite a six candle candelabra, it made her office look medieval in a sort of modern way. Now I had to think fast, how could I fall upon my sword with the least damage, and save Priscilla at the sane time, I mean I wanted this all out in the open, but I hadn't figure that she would get into trouble with me. She then came in and sat in the chair behind the desk, I tried to head her off at the pass, so I said, " I'm sorry Bali, I didn't mean for you to see that."

Ok I hadn't quite figured out how to fall on my sword yet, as she said, " You know young man they're proper places for that, you should have thought before you did such a thing in front of all the kids."

I put my head down and said, " If you could please punish me and not Priscilla, and I'll promise that we'll never do that again."

Then she surprised me as she laughed at me, my head came up in anger, but she had a look on her face as if she knew what I was doing, then she trailed down her neck one finger, it looked very seductive, it seemed to me she was remembering something from her past. Then he eye's refocused on me as she said, " That, that was only young love, have you been following the rules that have been set down for you and the others?"

Ok I knew I couldn't tell her the truth, but I'm such a terrible liar, So I tried to stay as close to the truth so as not to get Priscilla in trouble, " Yes Ma'am, every rule was followed during school hours." That wasn't a lie, I mean the one time we didn't follow the rules weren't during school hours, but in my fevor I blurted out, " Oh except when we draw and write, Bali all we do is draw and write nothing else."

Did I say to much, maybe my unthinking mouth just got Priscilla in trouble, then she smiled and I had to think that maybe I was over thinking all this, it seemed that through my eye's she could tell what I was thinking, then her eye's seemed to twinkle, yes I said twinkle. Then she got up and moved to the window as she said, " I believe you Jon, you should take her out to the grove, that's why I bought this place." She then turned and put her hands on the back of the seat and said, " That and all the kids I could teach what it means to be a vampyre."

I had a feeling like a rat caught by his tail, but I had to ask, " Grove Ma'am, what's that?"

" You do remember me talking about our goddess's sacred grove in class right?"

" Yeah is that here?"

" No my dear boy, it just looks like a small piece of heaven, but the real reason I called you here was your clothes, can you put on any other better clothes then those at all?"

" Well Ma'am I have a button up shirt that I can wear, but as in pants the only way I'll have a better pair is if I take them out of the wash, and I think they may smell after being in my bag, I'm sorry Ma'am, and after you told me about going to temple and I didn't even think."

" You have to save these pairs for Sunday and Wednesday, Sunday is all your day and us as professors try not to interfere on these days, I mean we are available if you need us, and Wednesday's are called casual Wednesday's, it's also the day we try to allow you to shop if you need to, not that you can't do the same on Sunday."

" Well Ma'am at home I was able to keep my clothes washed, and since I've been here I haven't found the washers and driers yet, well I really haven't been able to do my wash."

She laughed as she said, " My dear boy, we have a washing service pick our clothes up on Tuesday."

I had to think of how cool it would be not to have to wash my clothes as I said, " That's so cool Ma'am, do they deliver the next day."

She had a confused look on her face as she sat down and said, " No we pick them up on the same day."

I couldn't believe as I said, " Wow, that's really cool, they must be really fast."

" What?"

" Well they deliver our clothes the same day they pick them up, I mean I can wash my clothes in a couple of hours, but twenty-two students and all the professors all in the same day, now that's really fast."

" Jon they take a week, the clothes they pick up are delivered the next week."

" Oh. Then I can't use the service."

" What do you mean Jon?"

" Ma'am I only have four pair of jeans, it may look a little strange walking around in my underwear for a week, and I only have nine pair of them so eventually I would walk around nude."

She put her hand to her chest and said, " Oh that could be very embarrassing indeed," she then put her finger to her chin and added, I'll give you and allowance."

I had to take a deep breathe as it was very tempting and as I shook my head no I gave her an answer, " Ma'am it just wouldn't be right, my Momma said you always have to earn what you made and not except hand outs, I'm bending her rules by excepting the suit that you're buying me."

" I see," she then pushed slightly away from her desk and turned her chair toward the window, she then put her hand to her temple, " Maybe if you worked in the kitchen, would you work for our cook Rosie, yes I do believe that, that would work."

" Rosie is the name of the cook, is she like the secretaries Ma'am?"

" Our cook, no she isn't, we had to find a good cook that cooked naturally, I'll talk to her and see if she can find you a good job, then after dinner tonight you can go to her and find out what she has for you. Then we can set you up a money card to pay you with, yes I think that will do nicely, see Rosie like I told you and I'll talk to her after temple."

" Thank you Ma'am, can I go see Priscilla and tell her she's not in trouble?"

She then gave me the most loving smile I had ever seen on her, she then put her finger to her lips as if she was remembering again, then in a whisper that I could barely hear, " I forgot about young love, go put on your shirt, then go see Priscilla, also put on your school blazer."

I nodded my head as I got up, her eye's closed as I went to the door, I then said in a low tone, " Thank you again."

I was speaking to God, but I felt it safer not to say his name, then I went out the door and almost flew down the hall. I almost ran past Priscilla's door, but as it was open I stopped and looked in, she sat on her bed with her head down, so I said, " I'll come back as soon as I change my shirt, and Priscilla we're not in trouble."

Her head came up, she had tears running down her face, she smiled at me and said in an almost giggly voice, " Thank you Jon, and please hurry up, I want to hear everything she said." 

I then ran to me room and yanked off my old shirt, then I pulled out my good shirt, and as I was unbuttoning so I could put in on I heard a light tap on my door, well it could only be one person so I said, " Come in Priscilla."

She then poked her head in as pulled my shirt over my shoulder's, as I started to button it up she came over and sat on my bed, I then went to my door to make sure it was left wide open, I then turned with a smiled and said, " I told Bali we followed all the rules."

I finished buttoning it up as she came over and helped me tuck it in, as she came around the front I kissed her deeply, she slapped me lightly on the face and said, " Stop silly, I'm dying to find out what she said about what happened."

I pulled out my blazer as I answered with a big smile on my face, " She gave me a job, well not a job really, a way to earn money on a money card, a wait would that be like a credit card?"

" Probably, Bali has like a million, what will you be doing?"

" Working for the cook Rosie, I really don't know what yet, I have to talk to her after dinner."

She then looked down and asked, " What about us?"

I gave her a sly smile as I replied, " I think she was cool with it, well as long as we follow the rules at least, oh she said . . ." I trailed off, how could I really tell her of the mistake I had made, and worst of all she may hate me for my mistake, she had a concerned look on her face as she asked, " Jon what is it?"

I drew her close and kissed her on the forehead, then I took a deep breathe as I tried to say it in one breathe, " I may have confessed that we broke the rules," then I looked deeply into her eye's, " not the one from earlier today, but the one we broke in your special place. She did tell me that from now on we should go out to the grove when we write and draw, she kinda expects it of us now. I'm sorry Priscilla, I'm not a fast thinker as such, I jst blurted it out without thinking, will you ever forgive me?"

It seemed that she blinked her eye's in disbelief, then her lips curled up as she asked, " Did that come straight from Bali?"

" Yeah, is that good?"

" Good Jon, that's absolutely great, only third and fourth year students are allowed out there, she just superseded all of them. Amelia is going to have a cow."

" Hey what was with her telling us to get a room?"

" Oh she feels its up to sixth formers to control the lesser class men, but truly I think she's jealous of us, I mean she has to force her boyfriend to love her, and she does it a really gross way."

My Momma said curiosity always killed the cat, but I had to just ask, " Gross, Just how gross?"

" Blow jobs!" she said that without a blink to her eye's, so I knew she said it as a matter of fact, but I had to clarify that I heard her right so I said, " You mean giving head, my Momma said only sluts do that, is she some kind of whore or something?"

" Well maybe, but not in her mind, you see she sees it as a way of not getting pregnant, can you believe that, and she says it not like their really having sex anyways, she can be so crude some times."

" Whoa, you mean like that Monica girl, or was that the president that said that?"

She gave a little giggle as she replied, " Some of us girls started calling her Monica's little sister, not that we would ever say that to her face."

I had to laugh at her remark as I put my arm's around her, then a sudden point of realization hit us as Bali cleared her throat, I smiled at her as I asked, " Do I have time to change my shoes?"

She tried to give me a stern look as a smile broke out on her face, " You can change on the bus, we really do have to go, this is Amelia's first calling out."

I kicked off my shoes as Priscilla said, " Wow, Amelia has a gift, and she's being called out tonight." 

I grabbed my good shoes and we moved down the hall with purpose, as we moved I had to ask, " What does that mean, I mean being called out?"

Bali slightly turned her head as she replied, " The High Priestess will recognize her as a young Priestess in training, after her change she will go directly under a High Priestess to be trained, it's very complicated as it is our right, it will be selected by the High Council and as I'm her teacher it may not be me."

" So as her High Priestess you will have her called out, just so she can be trained by another High Priestess, that kinda sucks if you ask me."

" I'm her High Priestess at this school, if I had a temple her it would be me calling her out, but as this is mot my temple it will be Makarette that will be calling her out, I have not had the will to build my own temple as of yet."

Priscilla then said as we turned the corner, " Makari as we call her is very powerful, I'm not sure she likes us much, she's only doing this for Bali."

We ran out to one of those limo Hummer's, you the ones that have five doors on each side, a man held the door open for us, I helped Bali and Priscilla in, then I went in and sat next to Priscilla. I was proud to be in Bali's car, but I had to look around and ask, " Did we miss the bus?"

Priscilla squeezed my hand as she replied, " This is the bus silly, we just missed the first one, I'm so glad we get to ride together."

And in an ever so intelligence I replied, " Huh?"

She smile at me and replied, " There's twenty-two of us, one of these can carry twenty, so Amelia and me as I'm the most out side have to ride in this one, everyone else get to ride in the other one."

Bali put her hand up as to say silence then said, " No little one, its deemed that the youngest one would ride with me and the professors, so it would have been Amelia and Jon that rode with us, but now you have special dispensation to ride with him so to speak, so now you two can ride together."

I was totally blown away as I asked, " Really! That's so cool, hey if they're professors here where are they?"

" Look behind you Jon."

Man was I an idiot, and as these seat so plush it took a little to turn around to look, as I looked to the front of the bus I saw eight heads, I also noticed that we were on the move. Then as my intelligence was so complete I said, " Hey, a I'm sorry, a I didn't see you."

One with flaming red hair said, " Aye laddie, we be here, ya just keep yea listen ta Bali."

So I turned back around to her, she had a bottle of clear liquid in her hand, it had a yellow tint to it so I asked, " Wow, is that cream soda, does this thing have a refrigerator on it?"

She smiled as she cracked the bottle and took a swig after she replied, " Not exactly, I'm just a little nervous, I just needed something to calm me down."

" Oh wine then, my Momma has a little nip once in awhile as my Grandpa says, he says everyone has to every once in awhile."

" Not exactly wine either, wine wouldn't help a vampyres nervous very well any ways."

Ok I didn't put two and two together very well in my confused state, it was Priscilla that clued me in, " Blood Jon."

" More correctly plasma, it'll do in a pinch, and I do have to be careful just in case of a bump, blood is so hard to hide on a long trip like this, so we make do."

I had to smile as it came to me that she was nervous I then asked, " I didn't think vampyres got nervous, it kinda makes you more human to me."

Then from the front came, " Aye wee lassie never good at ta public speaking, now two she be havin ta do, since yea be addin ta hur grief, I feel ya wee lassie."

She gave a sweet smile as she said, " Thank you Amos."

Priscilla then asked, " What does he mean two and by yea that would mean us right?"

From right beside my head came a loud voice, " Da sweet lassie be callin out da new bond mates ta da front."

Ok it scared the bejeesha out of me as I cried," HOLY SHIT!"

" Laddie dunt ya get ya panties in a wad, Bali may I join ya?"

That man with flaming red hair was right by my head, and his hair seemed to stand in every direction, with his full bread and mustache he looked like a terror, but these he seemed to take extra special care of, if ever a man looked like what I would imagine a pirate would look it was definitely him. Bali gave him a smile of affection and she slid slightly over and said, " Yes bond mate you may sit next to me."

She put her hand in his hair as she pulled him to her and kissed him right on the lips, I had to wrinkle my nose at this, and saw all the love in their eye's, then I realized she said bond mate so I had to ask, " Are you calling out him as your bond mate?"

" Nae laddie, we boned nae goin on five hoondred year a noe, noe yes be da new bonding mate, day be recognizin ya."

This very big red haired man now plopped down next to Bali with his legs fully spread, and then she said in a course tone, " Amos the children!"

Then he tucked the green skirt with golden filigree on it under his private area, and he said, " Aye lassie, sorry wee laddie und lassie."

" A bond mate takes a long time to recognize, but you do it's for as long as you both should exist."

I didn't really understand as I turned my head, I had a queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach that I had no idea of where it was coming from, then I asked, " Which two professors are they, man I wish Priscilla and I could be bond mated, that would be so cool."

Priscilla touched my arm with a gentle cress and said. " Jon, I think they are talking about us."

Ok, I didn't think my head could snap back that fast, then it hit me like a ton of bricks, as long as you both should exist, now it was my stomach that had the butterflies in it. My face must have gotten a bright red, I could feel my grin go to a smile, then it stretched to my ear's, my whole body started to quiver, I knew my eye's must have brightened. I turned my head to her and said, " Babe we're the bond mates, I mean we really are bond mates, I mean that's really cool, hell I don't know what I mean."

Bali smiled as she nodded her head, then Amos joined in, and Priscilla's smile got huge as she also nodded, ok I was so happy that I got a little light headed. All I could think of doing was to kiss her on the lips.


	4. Chapter 4

Why we weep

The realization and honor of a new life

written by Thomas G. Arndt

Chapter 4

Her eye's twinkles as bright as mine, they looked as I had saw then in her office with the candle light, it was as if she was seeing a new thing, it had to be the first memory when Amos and she first met, I put my hand on Priscilla's cheek and was about to kiss her again when Amos brought me back to reality, " Nae laddie ya dun have free rain und her noe. Ya have ta be wish dar boy."

This time I spoke my confusion out loud, " Ok what?"

I knew everyone had to see my confusion, he spoke like one of my Grandpa's old friends, Bali then said it as plainly as she could, " He's taking about sex dear boy, it has to be a mutual decision between the two of you, and Priscilla if you decide it's time you need to come to me, I'll have something special for you."

Well hell, now we're having the sex talk with two five hundred year old bond mates, uncomfortable wouldn't be the word that I would use, Amos then said, " Aye laddie, it not be da unwanted pregnancy dat yur not wanting, nae yea not prepared yet."

Ok I really had to ask him, " I. A kinda know about that, hey are you Scottish, you kinda sound like my Grandpa's old friends?"

" Are yea deef laddie, aye be nae Scott, I be from Erin."

Well slap me silly, what the hell does a girls name have to do with where he's from,but I do have to admit he did sound a little different then my Grandpa's friends, I was about to ask again when Bali spoke up, " Erin is another name for Ireland, so your Grandfather is from Scotland?"

So I was having a hard time understanding him, and I was glad Bali was there as I replied, " Yeah, my Momma say that they speak the Gitty ta Gow language, what ever that means."

Amos then spoke, " Aye laddie, yes old Granddae speaks da old tongue, it be da crude he speaks, und you GrandMae believes in da ancient way as well, da earth way as yea do?"

" What?"

Bali then translated, " He's asking you if your Grandmother believes in the earth ways as most native American's do?"

" Aye, it da woot I said."

I smiled at her as she crested his face with my reply, " Yeah she does, and my Momma kinda does as well, Grandpa says life has been to hard on her and she deserves to rest with her ancestors just for a little while."

Amos got a big smile on his face as he said, " Aye he's love for his wee daughter will always shine, he want her ta be seef."

Priscilla had a concerned look on her face as she said, " Jon I think Amos meant something deeper when he talked about me getting pregnant, I think there might be a problem with that."

Bali gave a very wary smile as she said, " Yes my lover, she must know the truth, you're not yet a vampyre, so it is possible to still get pregnant, the problem is that no one can ensure your change yet, as you get older it will become more and more assured. So if both of you should make the change, so if you did have children and they didn't become vampyres, you would have three things to worry about, as a young vampyre you may feed of it without wishing to do it. Two if you should make the change, you may have to watch it get old and die, and lastly if you were so lucky to have children and by some stroke of luck they did become vampyres, you two have to worry about rejecting the change. A pregnancy can be hard on both vampyres, and I truly mean both of you, you have a connection that no other vampyre can understand, except those whom have been through it, you see you can feel what she's going through as well as what she does, it is written that vampyre men have even have worse morning sickness."

Amos then crested her face with the most gentlest touches, and then she did the same with him, he then picked up her hand and kissed it, so I followed his example and kissed Priscilla's hand, she then pull his hand to her mouth and kissed his knuckles, then Amos said, " Aye wee lassie I feel da flippied flop in da nether regions."

She then took a drink from her bottle and kissed him right away, I had to feel that they were sharing more then a kiss, I felt compelled to do the same with Priscilla, then the horror hit me on being called out, oh man that meant all eye's would be on us, at the same time I felt her doing the same thing as I was. The one thing I feared most was standing in front of a group of people, I think what had happened in first grade even made it worse, she (my teacher) made me stand in front of class as she paddled me, I then said in a shaky voice, " A Bali, can Priscilla and I have one of those bottles, I have butterflies like you wouldn't believe in my stomach."

Priscilla then said with a strained look, " Butterflies, more like Bald Eagles."

" That's why I asked for two Babe, as we seem to be able to feel each other."

Bali gave us a sweet smile as she replied, " No, you're still to young, Amelia can you bring them two of the special kids bottles?"

Seconds later she was there with a bottle that looked like it had red pop in it, then she handed one to Priscilla and said, " Here Dork One."

Priscilla took it as I said, " She's not a dork, and we're connected so you could be a little more kind to her."

She handed me the second bottle and said, " Here you go Dorkier Two."

I was about to have words with her as Priscilla cut me off as she said, " Dorkier isn't even a word idiot, and you-"

Amos cut her off as he said, " Stop ya sassin grill, nae go sit yea seef down Melia."

Bali gave a little chuckle as she said, " Amelia honey, you're making Amos angry, Amos she's only a child, please honey go sit down."

" Dat grill dos burn me last wit."

It was really cool how Bali just jumped in like that, if I had to bet on a fight in between Amelia and Amos, well I'm not stupid, I would have to bet on Amos, and I mean I'm sure she would be dead wrong as in permanently dead, well it was cool except for the Bald Eagles flopping around in my stomach. I twisted off the lid on the bottle and took a big swig, it tasted like red pop except for the little extra in it, I usually preferred root beer, but what it was laced with made it a lot better, I mean it seemed to explode in my mouth. I felt giddy and happy almost immediately, with my head up in the clouds, Bali put her hand on the bottle almost as fast as I took a drink. She then said, " Go easy with that stuff young man, let it nurture your body, you're to young for two bottles of that stuff."

I then asked, " What is it? I mean it tastes great."

" Jon I think there's blood laced into these drinks," Priscilla replied.

Bali then asked her, " Did you smell it, or did you just reason it out?"

I put my lid back on, but as I did this I had to take a whiff, it smelt intoxicating, so I had to ask, " Does blood smell like that to us all the time?"

" Aye laddie," Amos said, then added, " but yea learn how ta control da lust of it, tis be bad ifen ya don't laddie."

Bali gave us both stern looks as she said, " That's why we have intensive classes in how to control your blood lust, you have to learn how to control that lust or it will cause you to do the worst, that's another reason why we just don't hand out these bottles, truly you will be allowed one bottle a week in one year. Then in your third year you'll be given a bottle of blood once a month, as you enter your fourth year we encourage you to drink blood once a week to help to learn how to control your lust, but even with all this training you still have to be careful. Think of it as the difference between a wino and a person who's never had a drink, the wino can hardly feel the effects, where as someone who's never drank gets drunk with far less liquor, they loose control, then they drink of whomever. Then the police get involved and we become pariah's, we could handle the police, but with the advent of new technology, I'm afraid we wouldn't fair well."

Priscilla then smiled as she asked, " Is that why Amelia some times looks wobbly at temple?"

Amelia then said in a hateful voice, " Hey Dork's, don't tell anyone that I'm a timid speaker, and I won't tell anyone that you're the one and only nerd goth, kay?"

Ok Amelia and I were really going to have words and as I opened my mouth yet again Priscilla cut me off, " I'd rather be a nerd goth then a slut."

It made my heart proud of how she talked to her, I had to giggle as Amos said, " Arg. Lassie-" Bali put her hand in his lap as he turned his head and continued with, " Burnt wit lassie, burnt wit."

Amelia then said, " Hey thing two, put your drink in thing ones purse we're here."

I could see that we were pulling up to a big red brick building, it looked more like an office building then a temple, But there was a woman out front that looked all the part of a High Priestess, Amos and I got out on the opposite sides of the car and helped out our ladies. She took my drink and put it in her huge purse, it was smaller then the one she carried all her writing equipment in, I had to think that it would be big enough for her writing stuff, but with her now carrying my drawing equipment it wouldn't be big enough, not that I would ever force her to carry it as mow it had all my drawing equipment in it. As we raised our head she was right in front of Bali and Amelia, her dress was off white, it was stitched with intricate patterns of flowers, what looked like flames coming from what looked like flowing water, with yellow swirls, and what looked like black star bursts. Around her neck was a necklace that was formed with small stars that ended in a crescent moon, it was all silver with red stones, Priscilla then nudged me, and I saw that all heads were bowed, my Dad said we don't bow to no man. But she was a woman wasn't she, and whom could it really hurt, so I followed suit and bowed my head, she then said, " Bali I see that you teach your children well."

Her tone sounded like she was scolding her, so I felt I had to say, " I'm sorry High Priestess, I was taken by your beauty, that is why I was late in bowing, please forgive me?"

" This one is a charmer Bali, you're forgiven young man, but what of his clothes?"

Bali then came in with, " He's a poor one, and just new, we only recognized his lack of wardrobe this very day, I have instructed his guide to take care of it on the morrow."

" Well then Bali I can forgive this for one day, so why do you receive three students instead of two?"

" We have a thing to talk about as Amos was the first to see it, and I only recognized it this very day also."

" So then we'll talk if you think it prudent."

" Yes High Priestess, Amos will you take the children to their seats."

" Aye lassie," Amos said, " da we have yur leave mistress?" There was silence then he spoke again, " Cum wit me chilon, we must get set."

I had to notice that her brown hair went down to the center of her back, really no one except for Priscilla had short hair, well as we had this short conversation all the professors had already filed in, it was as Bali had said earlier, we were now pariah's here. Before she allowed us to leave she asked, " Amelia are you for this very important day?"

Amelia had a smug look on her face as she replied, " Yes High Priestess, I'm ready to join your circle."

" Good, now go and leave us, we need to talk."

Amos then quickly snapped his fist over his left breast, Amelia did the same so I figured I had to do the same thing, my Dad was right I really hated doing all this stuff, it seemed very demeaning to me, as we entered I saw that the American flag was lower then all the rest. It made me disgusted, and then Priscilla put her arm through mine and asked in a whisper, " What's wrong?"

I shot back as low as I could manage, " It just makes me disgusted, lets talk when we're not in ear shot."

Amelia was ahead of everyone, Amos was right behind her, and we took up the rear, he sat next to her as she sat, he put his hand down on the wooden bench, she then moved to the other side of his hand. He smiled at us and said, " Aye lassie yea set next, den da young laddie."

Then he patted the seat to show where she was to sit, after she sat down I sat on her left, as Priscilla grabbed my arm, I looked at Amos and he gave me a quick nod, well I had to ask one question, " Well I guess kissing is out of the question?"

She gave me a quick peck on the lips, and it was now that I noticed all her earrings were gone, all she had on were small silver crescent moon shaped earrings, it came to me where I had seen earrings like that before, Amelia had on a pair exactly like them. I had to wonder if they were all forced to wear them, they both had on mid-thigh dresses, black, I had to see if my fears were warranted, so I turned my head to look, but my eye's locked on Bali in the door way with her head down. The two of them were talking, I could see how she was shaking her head, it was as if she was being scolded by the head mistress in an all girls Catholic school. I had only seen it on television and had to wonder if that's the way it really happened, well I had to ask Amos, " Amos why does Bali bow her head like that, I mean she's a High Priestess to, right?"

He gave me a wary look as he replied, " Aye laddie, wee Princess is dejoined, da school saved her, all yea chilon are all she cares fur now."

I leaned back and intertwined our hands, I then whispered, " I don't know what dejoined is, but it sounds pretty painful."

Priscilla leaned closer so only I could hear, " She was the High Council member, her position can only be vacated through death, to Dejoin yourself you have to almost make a pariah of yourself, that's a little hard to explain, but it had to be her decision, no one else can make that choice except for you, and it's a hard one."

I put my arm around her and said, " Well something must have really sucked then."

Amos answered as if I wanted one, " Aye laddie."

Priscilla then whispered, " I'll tell you later what I think, I think it has to do with the balance, and in a way that could be bad for us."

I felt her body shudder so I held her tighter and kissed her on the forehead, and I whispered to her very softly, " I'm here for you Babe."

Then I saw Bali sit next to Amos, Amelia then got up and they scooted down next to us, and she sat on the other side of Bali, then the brown haired woman know as Makarette floated to the front, yeah I said floated, at least that's what it looked like to me. She then moved to the middle of a stage, and had three woman standing at each position of the compass except for the most southern place, she then turned to the crowd and said, " Amelia I understand that you've been recognized by the element of earth?"

Bali then stood up and said, " As a High Priestess of learning I have recognized her, and I have taught her the ways of the circle, so she may join your circle."

Amelia then stood up with her head back, then she walked up to the southern most position and the compass was now complete. The lady whom we knew for short as Makari then turned to the north, she then invoke the element of air, then lite the candle the woman was holding, it was yellow. She then turned to the east, and I saw the red candle, so I knew it had to be fire, after she invoked this she turned to the west, and with the blue candle she invoked the element of water. She then turned to Amelia and as she was holding a green candle, I had to wonder where she had gotten it and figured it must have been sitting there, she then invoked the element of earth, she then returned to the center and invoked the element of spirit, it was a black and white candle. I had to wonder if spirit was truly and element, I mean I heard of something like this, except I think it was called the void or something like that, but I understood the black and white candle, my Grandma always said the spirit had a duality to it. It seemed really cool, and kinda wrong at the same time, of course I wouldn't tell anyone this until much later, then she stood straight and tall as she said, " As I present our gifts to the goddess we have good news, and as I called out Amelia, I also call out Bali as the new head mistress of the school of Emil Sanchez, and as the High Priestess of this same said school."

Bali had stood the entire time the circle had been cast or invoked or what ever you call it, Makari seemed to spit out the last words, and as she stood there she bowed her head and said, " As head Mistress and High Priestess I would like to call out one more thing to your attention, may I speak Makari?"

It hurt me to see her bow her head like that, Makari then replied, " My circle so recognizes the Head Mistress of our new school."

She didn't even try to add High Priestess, and Bali said, " As my bond mate and I have seen, we would like to recognize a hew bonding of two bond mates. Amos please?"

Amos then stood up, and with his head held high he said, " Aye as a bond mate, Aye da recognize da new bonding of Jonathan as a bond mate, may his bond never fade."

Ok I wasn't sure I should stand, so I did and looked at him, he then flicked his head to the High Priestess, with his head going high, well I could do this, so I turned my head and held it high, then Bali said, " And I recognize his mate as a possible High Priestess in training, may I present Priscilla?"

Priscilla then stood up, I tried to hold her hand, and she slapped it away, it hurt to see her so contrite to High Priestess. The High Priestess then said, " My circle so recognizes these two as bonded, and we welcome a new sister to the fold."

She then turned to the center and put her hands up, then she spoke, " may the goddess recognize them and give them wisdom and a long life, all is for the goddess, blessed be!"

Everyone then said, " Blessed be!"

I was kinda late in my response, I was going to sit down, but then I saw Amos shake his head, so I kept standing, well then she un-invoked all her candles, well I guess that's what you call it. She then did in the exact reverse order what she had done when she invoked them and gave each of them a drink from a giant chalice, as she did this to Amelia she came and sat next to Bali, after each of them drank they all said, " Blessed be."

And then she came to Bali and repeated the act, and she sat down, then she did the same with Amos and he sat down, then came Priscilla's turn, and as she came to me she said, " As a new bond mate you except the blessing of the goddess and serve her and protect her as you serve and protect your mate, if so say blessed be, then you may sit down young warrior."

I didn't really know about this goddess, but I was surely going to protect Priscilla so I said, " Blessed be!"

Then I sat down, and two things I knew, first would do all I could to protect Priscilla, but second now I was some kind of warrior, all I wanted to do was draw, oh yeah and love Priscilla. Ok she now moved to the center of the pews and allowed everyone to take a drink from the giant chalice, after they took a drink they split and half of them filed past us, all the adult vampyres nodded their heads to us, it was so cool, like we were royalty or something. Then as the last drank she moved back to the center and I think she finished off that really good tasting wine, then she said, " As the goddess saw fit to reveal such newness to us so you should also dwell in the goodness of her fold this night, this meeting is ended, Merry meet and merry part and merry meet again."

Everyone then said, " Merry meet and merry part, and merry meet again."

Man I had to get up on this ceremony stuff, I was a little late again. Then she placed the chalice back on the table, she then turned to us as she had done this, she then said, " I thank you for all coming, and I thank the goddess for her goodness, it is now done."

After she said this everyone then rushed us, well not just us, I mean Amelia was there also and she got just as rushed, the excitement was palatable, everyone hugged Amelia, then Priscilla and then me, I could feel how uncomfortable Priscilla was as my comfort level dropped just as fast. The first one to really talk to me was Gene, of course in his excitement he got into trouble, " Priscilla and Jon that was so fucking cool."

Which drew the attention of Makari right away, " Young man! This id the goddesses temple!"

He whipped around to meet her gaze with, " I'm sorry High Priestess, can you forgive me?"

Which brought a remark from Bali, " Would you flog a child, let his word stand as his forgiveness."

She nodded her head as I had to think, would they really flog him, Bali took him aside and said, " Thank your stars that the goddess is in a good mood tonight, go to the bus and think about what you said."

And as I said the three of us were surrounded, it was like that dream where you see the perfect Christmas present , but every time you get near it you're blocked from getting it. I could feel that Priscilla wanted to escape just like me, and I mean I could feel her literally right in my gut, and I really hate crowds, I knew she could also feel me, so we were doubly in trouble, and I knew it would only get worse unless we found an escape. Most of the professors stopped to talk to Bali, and as I saw our escape I took her hand and made our way out the door, I knew we should stay except we really couldn't take all this. I had to wonder if this is how it felt to be married, man was I wrong, I mean I wasn't really looking to get married, but I had a feeling that this had created a kinda change.

As we made it out to the bus the door suddenly opened up, Amos then poked his head out and said, " Lassie da be woot da drink be fur, yea need ta return ta give them dur chance, noe take the courage und go back."

So we froze in place, and we then turned to except anyone that wanted to hug us, but he was right so we took our bottles and took a small swig to reenforce us, I looked at the other bus and waved Gene to come out, he stuck his head out and asked, " What's up?"

I replied, " Hey Gene can you come over and help me, I mean all the crowding around her is making her very nervous, and me also."

He nodded to us, after he came over and hugged the both of us and said, " I'm so proud of you two."

Amelia then came over and gave me a huge hug and said, " Hey it's really cool for you two, but if you tell anyone what I just said I'll deign it you got it."

Then she got into the bus, and they started to file out, so we moved to the door of their bus and Gene directed traffic, he made sure no one rushed us, and like a good boyfriend I held her purse for her. As the last one got into their bus we moved over to our bus, we then sat where we had before, and Amos smile at us as he said, " Ya did well wee lassie, und ya only took a wee nip."

We looked at each other because we had forgotten about the bottles in her purse that I had just given back to her, she then pulled them out again and we both took another small drink, tapping our bottles together as we did. Then suddenly Amos jumped out and within seconds he was helping Bali in, then I helped her into her seat, and he came in and as he sat he did the tuck thing with his skirt, he took her hand and kissed it. I pulled Priscilla closer and kissed her on her cheek, she gave me a big smile and as I thought of kissing her on the lips Amos said, " Wee lassie dun ya proud, she felt all da panic and only took a wee nip, und bad yea feelin away."

I then added, " Yeah, and I had Gene help me with the crowd so she wouldn't panic, I hope that was ok?"

She smiled at me as she replied, " Well that's good for Gene, I have been given a punishment for him by Makari, he still has to serve it, but in a way he's already served some of it."

Well I had to ask, " Bali excuse me for being crude, but why do you take that kinda shit from her, I mean you used to be a Council member."

Amos then said with a stern voice, " It be minden ya own business laddie."

" I'm sorry Bali I didn't mean to pry, but I'm not sure I like her much, I mean she's a High Priestess and all, and I think she shouldn't be flaunting her power like that, so I ask you for my forgiveness?"

Bali's smile returned as she replied, " Jon I could never hold a grudge against you sweet boy, and not that she's flaunting her power, she just like to do things the proper way. The visiting High Priestess must always bow to the authority of the temple, the only one that doesn't have to bow is the High Priestess of us all, and Jon I wasn't on the council. You see the High Council wanted me to give up Amos to fulfill that job, they felt I had to be an example to all High Priestesses, I exited my position to keep Amos. They felt I turned my back on all High Priestesses for a mere man, and that I loved him to much, he was going to kill himself, then I told him that if he did I would join him soon after, so then he decided against it, and I knew I had done the right thing, now please don't worry yourself over my decision."

Priscilla then gave me a coo as she said, " You did it for the love of Amos, Bali that is so cool, see I told you she did it for the balance didn't I."

Amos then came in and said, " Aye lassie we both did it fur da love of it, und da new High und High wanted me fer her own protector, I had to reject da Council ta be wit my love as well."

I then said, " So you turned your back on them, now I feel right about some of the thing I saw that burnt me up, I mean we live in America, and I don't know where I heard this, but we are a land not behooving to no man, government, or system."

" Aye laddie pride goes da wrong way some times, yea be a far creation from da mere humans, ya must release da pride ta da wind."

Bali smiled at me and added, " Be bow to our goddess because she controls our fate, she is the one that made us the way we are, we are creations of her, so we bow to her."

I couldn't be angry at her, but I had to shake my head as I said, " I'm sorry Bali, but my Momma and Daddy made me what I am, I mean she might be the final result of my creation, but they're the ones that shaped my thought's. I love Priscilla because of how much of a free will she has, and remember we're a nation formed on rebellion, my Dad said that's what makes us powerful, again excuse me for his words, it's because we take no shit off no one."

She had a stern look on her face as she said, " Young man don't take liberties with my good nature."

" Bali I'm sorry, but if you're in the United States, all the old should be thrown away, and you should grasp at the new, I mean in a way I'm a whole new creation, have you ever seen a mark like this before, yeah some times a good intention is a bad thing, but you have to at least try."

Amos then said, " Aye laddie, but dis America has dun made a many mistake."

" Yeah, and just who is number one in the world."

Bali gave me a plastic smile as she said, ' Lets agree to disagree for right now."

" Ok Bali, out of respect for you I would say another word about it, hey and what about the flags, a just one more tirade, I mean I don't mean to be mean, but if one patriot saw that, that church would be burnt to the ground, I'm just glad it hasn't happened yet, I mean we are in Oklahoma."

Bali then rose one eye brow, and Amos looked as if he was getting angry, then Priscilla scolded me, " Jon that would be a hate crime, no one in Oklahoma is going to do that."

I put my head on her shoulder and said, " I'm sorry Priscilla, but most American's would see that as a hate crime against the United States, I know I've only been living here just over a week, but I hear it in the way they speak about football, we have our own song and a lot of other things that no other state have. I allowed my voice get weak as I continued, " I just thought they would be more patriotic then most states, please forgive me if I sound to harsh, I don't think I could live if you didn't forgive me."

She then grabbed my hair and said, " You're probably right," then she smiled at me and added, " I forgot how new you are to the state, Oklahoma's are a proud people, you can see it in all we do, I mean we were the first show me state."

Bali then asked, " Show me state?"

" We were the first state to have the concealed fire arms law, they call it the show me effect or cowboy effect."

I was a little confused as well, I thought she was saying that we were Missouri or something, and I had to ask, " And weren't you like the third or fourth state with a make my day law on the books?"

" Yeah, I think we were, even though I can't be sure on that one."

Bali then asked, " The make my day law?"

Clearly she didn't know the laws of the land as Priscilla then replied, " You can pull out your concealed fire arm and shot someone if you can prove probable cause, then you get away with it, but you can say most Oklahoma's have more sense then that, I mean if we didn't can you imagine how much like the old west it would be like."

Amelia then put her two cents in, " I hate to admit it, but thing one and thing two have a point Bali, I mean most Oklahoma's would complain first, and only reach for it if they thought they weren't being listened to."

Priscilla then said, " Thank you Amelia, but we really didn't need you help."

" I'm just saying that's all."

Bali then smiled at and said, " Young Master Jon has a point, I'll call Makari and discuss this with her tomorrow." She then sighed and added, " Well we have a lot to think about, now for a special honor given the two of you, as you've been recognized this very night will you two do me the honor of sitting at our table for dinner, Rosie hasn't had time to prepare you anything special though, but I would be proud to have you at our table."

Amos then added his to cents in, " Aye laddie und lassie, will you da ta honor fur my sweet lassie?"

I then replied, " I would be honored, what da ya say sweet lassie?"

Priscilla then put her arm through mine as she replied, " Jon I like it when you talk to me like that, but I think we should reserve it until tomorrow night, then we could do it all the proper way, plus tonight should be more about Amelia, and since we only just found and her's was already found she deserves to be before us."

Amos got a sparkle in his eye as Bali said, " That would be the proper way to do it, I can see the wisdom in what you're doing, then we dine tomorrow night."

I nodded as we came to a screeching halt, the man at the wheel then turned and said, " I'm very sorry mistress, the boys are throwing the ball around again and I almost hit one."

" That's ok Herbert, we'll go ahead and get out right here, how Amos don't go out yelling at them again, they're just boys."

He then with anger said, " Da daft boys have noe the sense bout dem."

I quickly jumped out as what Bali had said to me was a signal, and as I helped out Priscilla out I said over my shoulder, " You guys better run Amos is mad."

Gene then came back with, " Thanks Jon, we'll just do that."

With Gene's replied Amos came running around yelling, " YA DAFT BOYS GET YUR ASS BACK HUR NOE!"

Bali then yelled at Amos, " AMOS AMELIA!"

I ran around and helped her out as Amos came back saying, " Aye sweet lassie, aye be sorry Dammit!"

" AMOS YOUR LANGUAGE!"

He then got very contrite as he said, " Aye dar wee lassie, aye be seekin yur forgiveness from yea, will ya forgive ma trespass."

" Just don't do it again," she said firmly, then she relaxed a little and added. " now after you apologize to Amelia you go introduce Jon to Rosie, then come and join us for dinner."

" Aye lil lassie, I be askin fur yur forgiveness, wit ya give it ta me?" Amelia nodded her head, then he continued, " Young Jon yea be comin wit me."

" Ok Amos, hey I'm sorry I warned them, you just looked really mad."

Bali then said, " Amos is a big teddy bear, he wouldn't have done anything, plus you were just protecting your own."

Amos then smiled and gave me a wink as he said, " Aye laddie, aye be just given them a scare, but a lesser laddie woot have just stood there, ya made ya own proud, und aye woot'n have it any other way."

Well I guess that's what I was doing, or at least protecting the one cool guy I knew here, and right now that was Gene, so I guess I did my Dad proud also, I think my chest must have grown a few inches right there and then. But then I was a little deflated as Amos took me by the hand like a little girl, he led me to the kitchen and showed me Rosie, she then told me to come after dinner to do the dishes, well the deflation just kept on happening, I thought I was going to help her cook. One thing though, she gave me my plate right then, she gave me my choice of drinks, so I picked root beer, I was really happy that we were having spaghetti and meat balls, I love spaghetti and meat balls. Amos then told her of our special night, so she then took my order for that night, I then told her that both Priscilla and I would be there, and I wanted a special plate that honored her as well, except that I wanted meat on mine if she could make that for me. She smiled at me and said she could do that, then she pulled out a trap and made Priscilla a plate, with what was probably going to be her drink, and yes no meat balls, man she seemed to know exactly what all the kids would eat.

Then I went out and sat with my lovely new girlfriend, she was so happy as I put out her food for her, and I be damned to sit at the special boys table, she also made a big salad with vinegar and oil, I was a ranch kinda guy, but it was really good with spaghetti. Yes and we ate it together, we intertwined our arms and it was a little hard to eat one handed, then we did something that would be taboo at a normal school, we kissed one another right on the lips, there were a few kissing sounds, mostly from girls, strange. Well I would have to do that more often, and in between each bite we kissed, we got a few stares, but after awhile they turned to their food, plus we really didn't care, I mean the only two people we saw was one another. After we finished I said, " Babe go have fun, I have to go do the dishes, oh that's my job now, see you after I'm done, love ya Babe."

Yeah I said it, she immediately wrapped her arm's around me and gave me a deep kiss, she then whispered, " That was to last me until you get off."

I have to say that every time we kissed like that we ran out of air, and yes I know I put it out there and got no return, and it seemed it took us a few minutes to get our heads together, then I went to work on the dishes, the only fledgling that was cool with me was Gene. He came in and as he did he whispered, " Hey guy thanks for the warning, that was really cool."

I answered, " Hey no problem bud, you can do the same for me some time, hey I'm sorry about your punishment, Bali was really happy you help me with the crowd."

" Bali is a big softy, Makari probably ask for a week, she'll let me off after a dat or two."

" That's really cool, hey when do you want to leave?"

He thought for a second then said, " How about nine, then we can get a cup of coffee or something, and then we can talk in private."

I nodded my head then asked, " Hey can you make sure none of the girls tease Priscilla fro me, I mean she's bonded with a lowly dish wash if you know what I mean, they can be bad."

" Yeah dude, hey see you later if Amelia doesn't want to do a little bonding of her own," he gave me a smiled and added, " if you know what I mean?"

I nodded my head as I didn't ask the most obvious question about her bonding ritual if you know what I mean, so I wait for all the dishes to come in, I only put the dish tray in the washer as it filled up, as I waited I did the pots and pans. Rosie came in and helped me a couple of times, she also showed me how to make the mop water, she was like a mad woman, it seemed like she was everywhere at once, you see the adult dinning room was in the off shoot room of the main dinning room. She had me take them out a pot of coffee once, it was really cool of her as she didn't have to let me do anything at all, it was amazing at how hard she worked, she had to laugh at me as I took my apron off after we were done, you see my shirt was soaked. Well I had never even thought to take my good shirt off,she asked if I would do the dishes on Sunday as it was her only day off, we then mopped the floor as we backed out the door, and she said that it was only proper as the help to exit the back door. As I rounded the building Priscilla ran up to me and wrapped her arm's around me before I could stop her, well I had to push here away as I said, " Hey babe I'm all wet, I wouldn't want to get that pretty dress all wet."

We were met at the front door by Gene as he said, " Hey dude here she is in one piece, but no one said a thing."

Priscilla then asked, " Jon what did you do?"

I put my hand nervously behind my head as I replied in a shy voice, " I asked Gene to make sure no one was unkind to you, you know me being the new house dish washer and all."

" Jon I'm proud of you, and I would have stuck up for you."

" I know Babe, you're a pistol, I should have thought better of you, can you forgive me Babe?"

" Weeell just this once."

" Hey can you help me cover my windows, I mean I haven't any drapes or anything, so I figured we could use some of my sketch pad to do it."

" Your sketch pad, no Jon. We'll just use that old blanket of yours."

" Babe that's my Grandma's, it's like a piece of home along with that huge pillow."

" Sorry Jon, we'll figure it out, but not your sketch pad."

Gene then said, " Hey I have some old curtains I'm not using, my Mom gave it to me to hang on the wall, we could just hang them on your wall."

Both of us said together, " Thanks Gene."

" Hey what can I say to the two that got me out of detention."

I then asked, " Bali released you after what you did for us?"

" Just one day now, thanks guys, except I have to mend fences with Amelia now, you should of heard how she yelled at me, my room is twenty-four, we can go the back way."

We both said, " There's a back way!"

He nodded his head and then we followed him, you see if you went through where the class rooms are you come to a door, just on the other side of the door was his room, he then ran in and got his curtains, we then walked arm and arm down the hall with Priscilla in the middle. He also got a hammer and some tacks, and his room was just a little larger then ours, he had a small refrigerator, computer, his own phone, television, and one of those play stations, man I wanted to hang around in his room. We got to my room and put my key in and swung the door open to nothing, yeah that;s what I said, nothing, I had a blank stare as I said, " Ah man, I think I've been robbed."

I then went to my closet and opened it, nothing, they took everything, the school sheets and everything, my Grandma's pillow and blanket, all my new O. U. stuff, but what did I do, I laughed, I was beyond crying as all I could think of was they took my laundry, how could this happen in a kick ass vampire school. I sat down on the now empty bed, Priscilla came next to me and kissed me with as much comfort as she could manage, Gene was the intelligent one in this situation, he went straight to the window and said, " Hey man how did they get in here, I mean the door was locked and the window hasn't been touched, a Priscilla I think we should check your room, I have a funny feeling about this."

So we all got up and went to her door, she unlocked her door and swung it open, and you guest it, completely empty, Gene then said, " This better not be the girls playing a trick on you guys, if it is I'm going to yell like I've never yelled before."

I couldn't believe it, why would they hate us so much that they would empty our rooms. Could it be jealousy because of what was bestowed on us, one way I felt terror and in another I felt shear anger, well they weren't going to get away with this. I mean its one thing to play a practical joke on my, but on my girlfriend at the same time, well I just might have to crack a few skulls. I folded my arm;s and turned to Priscilla as I said, " Well if it is a practical joke they're not going to get away with it, I say we go straight to Bali."

Gene smiled and said, " Damn right dude, she'll ground everyone of them."

Priscilla then said in a quiet voice, " Jon maybe we should find out who did it first, I mean its mean so they need to be punished, but to get all the girls in trouble, well I mean Jon."

I could fell her hear rising so I put my arm around her and said, " Hey babe we'll do it the right way for you, we'll talk to the girls and see if anyone knows anything."

She put her face in me chest and started to cry, she was breaking my heart, I crested her hair and kissed her on the forehead, then I whispered, " It's all right Priscilla, we can handle this together."

Then she pulled her head back and said, " Ya, you don't understand, ya, ya see when I got here, th, they were all mean to me, sa, so I made myself an outsider, ah, all I ever wanted was ta fit in, ma, my persona is nothing but a way to hide, I, I'm nothing but a lie, ya, you showed me nothing but affection."

Gene then stepped in and said, " Hey Priscilla I've seen them all, I was the second recruit to the house, Amelia being the first, they're nothing but a bunch of scared little school girls, man I knew I should have said something before now. They act like they do because they're all scared themselves, dudet lean on Jon, he's the strongest controlled dude I've ever seen in this house, and Priscilla he's got a strong shoulder just for you."

She laughed and said, " Dudet isn't a word."

" It is for you, it'll be our word for you, and any friends that want to join us in the force."

" Ug. Star Wars analogies now, did we have to go there."

I then said, " hey babe if it works don't fix it."

Gene then said, " Hey Priscilla we have to go to Bali anyway you look at it, I mean you're going to have to get new sheets to sleep on."

Priscilla then whimpered, " B, ba, but-"

I cut her off with, " Don't worry Babe, Gene and I'll handle it, you just lean on me, ok?"

She squeezed me tighter, so I help her walk down the hall, she was half dragging and half walking with her feet, but our new group walked with as much pride that just had a terrible practical joke played on us, and the very first room in the hallway was Amelia's. She was just coming out of her room with a Scrabble game, she saw us and immediately said, " Hey thing one and two, Bali has been looking for you."

I then said, " Hey Amelia why do you have to be so hateful."

Gene then said in an angry tone, " And if you had anything to do with the practical joke played on them we're going to have some serious words."

She then sneered as she said, " Please like I would belittle myself to play a practical joke, and I'm not hateful, I just don't care about you, that's a lot different then hating you, hating you would take a lot more effort, and I just don't have the time for that."

I had to smile at this, I felt she was truly being honest, so I said, " Love you to Amelia."

She then gave me a sneer that would melt any ordinary guy as she said, " Well anyways she said if we should run into you to go to her office, now I have to teach some of the girls a vocabulary lesson."

Gene smiled at her and said, " Givem hell Amelia."

" I always do Gene, I always do, now get the hell out of here before anyone sees us talking together, you know I'm supposed to be mad at you."

" Hey Jon's going shopping tomorrow, do you want to come?"

Well I wasn't sure how I felt about that, I mean the girl always seemed to dress to the nines, then I thought well if she does come maybe I could take Priscilla. But then she came in with, " Oh come on, Bali gave you direct orders, and I don't want to run the Gene marathon through the mall, plus you're going to be driving your car, a two seater where are we all going to sit, get real Gene."

She then ran off, I had to look at Gene, he just didn't seem like a two seater kinda guy, but I had to wonder what kind of car he had so I asked, " A two seat car, what kind is it?"

He had a kind of nervous look as he replied, " It's a beamer, my uncle bought it for my last birthday, my Mom was going to kill him for buying me such a death trap, he's really cool, my Mom says I take after him, I think he thinks he has to take care of me since my Dad divorced my Mom, but he really loves my Mom."

" That's cool, my parents are divorced to, I'm the eldest of five."

" My Mom only had two, I'm the youngest, my sister is five years older then me, she's married and living in Houston, my Dad lives in New York, I use to go there every summer, then this happened to me and I haven't really seen him since then."

" Don't worry man, I'm not even sure my Dad even loves me anymore, I mean they got divorced and the only time I saw him was when he needed something from me like cleaning up his bar, and like fools my brother and I went and helped him out. Well maybe he does love us and this is the only way he know how to show us, my Momma said I shouldn't make excuses for him, but, well I can't really talk about that much, I mean it still kinda hurts a little, a-"

Priscilla came in and said in a sweet tone, " Jon, you don't have to talk about it, we understand, I mean my parents are still married and I have to wonder sometimes."

Gene then said, " Hey parents, you can't kill them and you have to love them."

We all laughed as we then continued down the short distance of the hall, as we exited the hall a voice came from the direction of Bali's office, " There you two are, do you know how hard I've been looking for you."

We all looked at Bali to see her arm's folded over what looked like a night gown, I then said, " Sorry Bali, but we seem to have a problem, it seems that someone has burglarized our rooms, but we can't figure out how they got in."

" Gene you can go now, and to whom burglarized your room that would be the professors, we moved your room to a more private location, N now give me your keys and I'll give you your new ones, then I'll show you to your new room, oh and Jonathan we took care of your drapery problem for you, now come here."

I could feel the tension lift from Priscilla as if a weight had been lifted from her shoulder's, so I took her key and present them to Bali, she then gave us two color coded keys, mine was blue and her's was pink. The ends not the keys themselves, we then followed her out the front door to a small path that went around the building to the south side of the building, at the side was a long stairway going up to what looked like the second floor. We then went up the stairs to the second floor, the first door to the out side was metal and it wasn't locked, then we went down a short hall and in the middle she stopped in front of two doors, they both had our names on them, they were halfway down the hall. She then directed us to our individual doors and she allowed us to open our doors together, as we pushed them in we suddenly realized that it was the same room, we had to stick our heads in to be sure, then we slowly entered our new room.


	5. Chapter 5

Why we weep

A new unexpected life together

Written by Thomas G. Arndt

Chapter 5

Well what we were looking at was a room that was five times the size of ours, you see I think these use to be two rooms because the doors were hung separately, but now they opened to the same room. Directly across the hall was another two doors, and at the end of the hall was just one, except the door was huge, the room was only about half as deep, but the with was at least four times the with, and at the same end as the end of the hall way was another door. In the center of the room was a very large bed that set side was from the door, beside it and to the door was a table with two chairs, there were three very large windows, that were draped, in between them was what you might call wardrobe cabinet's. And at the end closes to the out side door were two dressers, all of them were set in that old world feel, I think you call it Queen Victorian style, or maybe Anne, plus a huge mirror on the wall, but we were just staring. At the foot was a very large trunk, and on top of it was my Grandma's blanket and huge pillow, they did not match this room. The room had basic white walls, and the carpet was blue what you could see of it, most of the floor was covered be oriental rugs, it was the most spectacular room I had ever seen.

We slowly walk through the room, Priscilla walk to the table and sat down, I was on the other side near our new closets, Bali had followed us in and then said, " Come here and look at your new bath room." Then she opened the door behind Priscilla, we both moved to the door as she was pointing to the very large tub, she said with excitement in her voice, " It has a whirl pool effect, and your shower has four directional sprayers, as you can see your wash board is a his and her's, we didn't have enough room for a bidet."

I had to ask, " When did you have time to do this, I mean we just found out that we're bond mates."

She smiled at me as she replied, " We were hoping to get bonded professors, so we made ours and two more, the other one is across the hall, and ours is at the end of the hall, the one across the hall is empty as the two of you are our first bonded couple. Amos and I discussed it and felt that it was only right since you two are the youngest couple to ever be bonded. The professors were only to happy to help, Priscilla you have a lot more clothes then we expected, and if you have any question Amos and I are just down the hall. All the professors gave you a little touch of themselves, we had to put a few of Priscilla's clothes in your cabinet Jonathan, we were surprised by your lack of shoes, so tell Gene to buy you two more pair tomorrow, well what do you think?"

I replied, " Its a little overwhelming Bali, it may take a little getting use to."

Priscilla quipped, " A little overwhelming."

She then moved to the door and closed the one that Priscilla came through, then she went out the other door and turned, she then said with a twinkle in her eye's. " Take your time and look at everything, and best of all, up here you don't have to listen to the rules, you two have the best of a night."

Then she closed the door, I mean what was Bali thinking, did she just give us the ok to have sex, Priscilla was sitting in one of the chairs, so I move to the other one, I put my hand across the table and allowed her hand to fall in mine, I squeezed it and rubbed her finger tips. My head was light and spinning, I remembered that Amos had said that we had to wait upon them, was he just talking to keep me off balance or should I wait, I loved Priscilla and decided that it would be all her decision on the time and hour. But how could I resist with a great bed like that, then I remembered an old movie where the gallant man slept on the couch, oh well no couch, maybe I could sleep on the floor, but for how long could I do that, no I would have to sleep in the bed. My Momma always said, just pull the bandage off with one pull, but Priscilla wasn't an old band-aid. In fact it would be a whole lot better then sleeping with my brothers, and I had already decide against sex, so it was just a really big bed for now, but sharing my bed with a girl, let alone one that I was very much interested in. Yeah this was very new to me, as she was at my left, so I started to my right and panned to my left really slowly, the room was devoid of anything except for a picture on each side of the doors, they were very dark and macabre pictures. I looked at our two cabinets that had the exact same scrawl work on them, it was then that I felt a really sharp pain in my stomach, it drew my attention to Priscilla who had tears running down her face, I drew her hand to my lips as I kissed it and whispered, " Priscilla what's wrong?"

I could hear how shaky her voice was as she replied, " I, I don't think I'm ready for ya, ya know this, fa, for all of this, I, I just can't."

I quickly went around the table and down to my knee's with a kiss on her lips I whispered, " Remember what Amos and Bali said, you have to be ready first, until then you sleep under the covers and I'll sleep on top, it has to be you choice."

" Wa, will ya, ya really wait?"

" Of course Honey, in truth I don't want to, but I'm so happy just to have a girlfriend, I've waited sixteen years, what's a few more years, I think I can wait until then."

" It's just not fair."

" Babe I love you, I can wait until you're ready, but you will always have me."

" No Jon, it's not fair that you have to sleep out in the cold."

" I won't be cold, you forgot that I have Grandma's blanket, hey why don't you take a bath in that great tub, I bet that will calm you down, then we can go to bed."

She then sighed as she said, " That's just not fair."

I was a little confused as I asked, " Babe you had me from go, what's not fair?"

She gave a little giggle and a tear at the same time, " You have to take a bath first, I mean Jon you stink."

I had forgotten that I had just gotten done with work, so I moved to the bathroom, I had to see if the shower was opaque, so I turned and said, " Hey Babe I'll make you a bubble bath, then when you're in I'll come in and take a shower, I'll keep myself wrapped until I'm in the shower, then I'll leave after you're done, is that ok with you?"

She slowly nodded her head, then I moved to the table and turned on the small light, then turned off the main over head light, then I returned to the bathroom and started the tub, then I poured in bubble bath until it looked thick, then I put in some bath oils. I then went out and turned down the bed for her, I grabbed two towels and a new pair if underwear, I put one next to the tub and one by the shower with my underwear, I went to the tub to make sure the water was hot enough and to add more bubble bath. You would have thought I had done this before and not my first time, I then asked, " Hey babe I put some bath oil in your bath, do you like any of this bath smell stuff in your bath?"

She then replied, " Yeah the green bottle."

Wow I was good, so I added a little more of what I had already added, then I said, " Ok I think we're ready, do you want to undress out there or do you want to do it in here as I wait?"

As I was leaning down for one more check she came in and crest my face and said, " Honey I'm already undressed."

And there she was with nothing on but a towel, " Ok then, I'll just go out and undress for my shower."

As was my way, I kicked off my shoes and quickly got undressed and carefully put them in my laundry bag, after she said, " Ok Honey I'm ready."

" All right, just a minute."

Then I wrapped a towel around my waist and had to stop, I mean I was about to enter a room with a fully naked woman, I made my mind up that I would have to get used to it some time, so I drew in a deep breathe and entered the room, as I did I added, " Babe I'm coming in."

She was deep within the suds so only her head showed, I could feel that she was as nervous as I was, she smiled at me and said, " You did really well with the bubbles, a little heavy on the oil, but it'll make my skin really soft."

" It was my first time, I'm sorry."

" Jon it's ok, just go and take your shower."

I smiled at her as I noticed just how much she would be able to see of me, I mean it was totally opaque, but it really left little to hide, well I guess it would have to do, I then went into my brown bag and retrieved my green soap dish and shampoo bottle, then I went in and took my shower. As I was now inside I took a deep breathe and removed my towel and placed it outside the door, I felt so self conscience that I started to have a problem, then I turned and started the shower to make sure the water was right. Then I started to wash myself, and the whole time I thought she was watching me, so I had a hard time with my problem, but I tried to keep my back to her so she couldn't really see, I liked to fully soap up then rinse off, and lastly wash my hair. I have to admit it was a little hard to do this without turning in the shower, but I made do as I went on. Then she jerked me out of my thought's as she said, " Ok I'm done."

Ok, I'll admit it, I had to look, and I saw the fully naked opaque body of my love, she stood there wiping off, it was the first time I ever almost saw a fully naked woman's body, and yes my friend came back and showed its head, she wrapped her towel around her and said, " I'm going to get ready for bed, I'll tell you when I'm ready." She then looked at me and I froze, I could hear the smile on her face as she asked, " Did you like what you saw?"

What was I going to do lie, so I went with the truth as I replied, " Yeah, I can't wait until I see it live." I'm not sure what she did next, all I knew is that I was trapped in my opaque prison, then she seemed to just glide out of the bathroom. I thought long and hard about turning on the cold water, but I had done it, I had taken a shower with a real woman, yes I had my problems and I would have to figure a way to get around it, or maybe I wouldn't have to, maybe that's what it meant to have a full and clear relationship with someone you loved. And I had to think that maybe I didn't want to get rid of this problem, I finished my shower with my hair, I then wiped off with my single piece of wardrobe that I had, then I thought that I didn't have pajamas, and would she be ok with me sleeping in only my underwear. I sat as I had to think about my problem, not the first one the second one, I was beside myself to try and figure this one out, I must have been speaking out loud as she came to the door and asked, " Honey is everything ok?"

" Yeah." I replied, and just what was I going to say about my problem, well the truth worked once, and my Grandma always said always go with the truth, so I then added, " Hey I haven't got any pajamas, I've always slept without them."

She asked with a little tremble in her voice, " Do you mean in the nude?"

" No, I have on under short on, but I usually wear nothing else, I guess I could put on a T-shirt and pants, but I won't sleep very well."

" Just put on a T-shirt, you don't have to wear your pants, I mean you only have so many pairs."

" Well that still might be a little embarrassing you see I only wear boxers, and well I might show a little."

" Oh Honey just keep your back to me."

" What if I don't want to, I mean I want to kiss and hug my sweet baby. Well at least until we fall asleep."

" Well then just put your Grandma's blanket on, I mean around your waist and come to bed. And after that if your little friend makes and appearance I'll just pretend I didn't see it."

Well I had to admit that my lady and I were going to be a good couple, she thought fast on her feet and I was a deep thinker, well not that she wasn't a deep thinker, hell we barely even knew each other, I mean I had no idea of what kind of night gown she had on. I knew she wrote, but just what kind of stories I had no idea, were they light or dark and macabre, what was her favorite color, was it truly black, did she have a favorite fruit and dessert, did she like desserts since she was a vegan. And just what was a vegan, and could she love a meat lover like me, why did she like her hair short, and was it truly black or did she dye it, I stood up and hung my towel on the back of the door, then I grabbed the door and said, " Ok, I'm coming out."

As I opened the door she scrambled to the bed and she had on nothing but her underwear, I mean she had on boxers as well as what my sister told me was a sports bra, it was kinda cool to watch, then I went to what I thought was my closet. Then she said, " No Honey, yours is the other one."

Ok I should have known, I mean I did put my dirty clothes in my laundry bag, was I losing my mind, then as I opened up the door I saw that half of my space was taken up by her stuff, and my side had seven empty hangers with one pair of pants and five T-shirts. I had to shake my head as I realized that I really had to do some laundry, she then said, " Don't worry Honey, I'll move them tomorrow."

" No Babe," I gave her a slight smile as I went on, " I just realized just how much I need to do laundry, maybe Bali will allow me to buy a couple pair of pants tomorrow, Hey I have to set my clock for eight thirty tomorrow."

" I already have, and you don't have to put on a T-shirt, I kinda like what I see."

Ok I then did a guy thing, yeah I flexed my muscles, I had to smile as I asked, " Do I look like Arnold?"

She had to laugh as she replied, " No more like Brad."

" Brad Pitt? Really?"

" Well before he got the abs."

" That's me ordinary Brad Pitt."

" Yeah his dark skinned, darker haired brother, hey didn't you say your mother was an Indian, where do you get your blonde hair from?"

" Babe it's not blonde, it's called sandy brown, and I got it from my Dad, Where did you get your completion from?"

As I moved to the bed she replied, " From my dad, his Mom was from the old country, you know Italy or Sicily or something, I got my hair from my Mom, that's why I dye it black."

I then pulled out my Grandma's blanket out and wrapped myself in it as I laid down on the bed, I put my fingers in her hair and asked, " What color was it before?"

She looked very unhappy as she replied, " Strawberry blonde, it's really horrible, I keep it short because it's really hard to brush, I really hate all the snags, well I guess I'll have to let it grow long now."

" No Babe you can keep it short if you like, or if you like you can grow it long, I really like how soft it is."

She grabbed the top of my hair and said, " No Silly, it's a vampyre thing, it grows way to fast just like our nails, do you know that they get so hard that they can cut through human flesh. Bali gave us diamond nail file so we can keep them presentable, but she says to use them just on the edge so they don't fray."

I had to give a heavy sigh as I had to admit, " I have a lot to learn about being a vampyre."

" I can," I cut her off with a deep kiss, she gasped the word, " teach," I then deepened the kiss, then we exchanged tongues and were off to the races. We didn't do anything except heavy petting, but it was really, really good, and she tasted the best she had ever tasted before, and her smell was out of this world. The next thing I remembered was a loud beeping noise, I mean I remember all the petting, except I can't remember falling asleep, then I lifted my head in it's groggy state, all I could think was I had to find that cat and kill it. As I moved around I heard that the noise was coming from my alarm clock, so quickly I moved to it and hit the button hard, I stood there trying to remember why I had set my alarm clock, then it occurred to me that I had to go shopping. So I moved to my closet and quickly got dressed, and since I had burnt through some of the time I had set I almost had to run down the steps, I grabbed my key and as I was leaving I saw her lying on her stomach. Even like that she was the most perfect thing I had ever seen, I made sure her door was locked, then I went through mine and locked it, after all I couldn't allow that perfection to be stolen, then I ran to the silver Beamer with Gene in the front seat.

As I got to his car he popped the door and I got in, and as I sat down and he put it into gear I had to wonder hey where did Priscilla's boxer's go, and had we done more then just pet, but I would have to find out upon my return, he slammed it into gear and I didn't even have the door closed yet. So now we were off to go shopping, I slammed the door as best as I could and made a face that said I was sorry, then I had to scramble to get my seat belt on as we were out on the main road before I even knew it. Man he drives like a maniac, so I had to keep my mind off the drive as we flew to the Highway, the road speed limit was forty-five he had to be doing eighty as we got on the Highway, I had to give up a prayer as we hit the Highway and his speedometer reach the other end. Nothing seemed to work, I looked out the side window and all I saw was a blur, I looked down at the floor and I felt the motion, I couldn't look at the speedometer, so I grabbed the side of my seat and held on as we flew, he took a forty-five mile per hour turn at ninety. My one comment on the journey was, " Nice car, does it get good gas mileage."

How lame was that, and what did he think he was Mario Andredi, eventually we pulled off at a mall called Penn Square Mall, I was quarter inch short of six foot, but he had four inches on me, and Amelia was right I had to run to keep up with him. Then we sat at a Cinnamon bun shop, we had a bun with a drink as we waited for the shops to open, so I asked, " Do you think Bali would care if I got a few pair of jeans, I mean these are my last pair and all?"

He showed me his shopping list, and on it was remember to get him two pair of blue jeans and two pair of nice slacks, with maybe two pair of new shoes, her writing was almost as nice as Priscilla's, it was all done in purple, I had to ask as she had specified two pair of shoes, " What are those kind of shoes?"

He gave a small chuckle as he replied, " They're a kind of fancy work boot, hey I heard about Priscilla's and your new room, so how was it?"

I had to ask in my confusion, " What do you mean?"

" You're not going to tell me nothing happened?"

" Well nothing did, I mean I really like her and want to wait on her."

" Hey it's cool if you don't want to tell me, well at least tell me what's it like sleeping next to her, a, I kinda heard that there was only one bed."

" Good, she smells a whole lot better then my brother's, I don't mean I don't ever want it not to happen, but I could lay next to her forever."

" Do you have separate bath rooms, I mean Amelia wasn't very forth coming."

" Only one, we have a his and her's sinks, and we kinda took a shower together, or rather she took a bath while I took a shower, hey did you and Amelia finally hook up last night?"

" Yeah I guess you could say that, the girls so worried about getting pregnant, and she hates the diaphragm Bali gave her, hey did you see her nude?"

" Kinda," I had to think about what he said before I went on, " it was through opaque glass, but I have to say what I saw I liked," then I had to think of what I had just said and added, " I shouldn't be telling you this, you can keep a secret just between us right?"

" Yeah dude," he then had to think as he added, " well maybe not from Amelia, I kinda talk while she does what she does."

" Ok, I have to ask, I mean I heard a rumor, so what does she do?"

" This is in between us right?"

" Of course bud, we're bud's."

He then smiled and answered, " Ok man, Stan let it slip and now he's an outcast, well she goes down on me, I don't like it, well I like it, what I don't like is the appearance of it, I mean the normal way is the way I would like it, not like that. I mean she says condoms aren't safe enough and like I said she doesn't like her diaphragm as I said."

I had to hold back a giggle as I asked, " You mean a blow job right, and what do you mean a condom isn't safe enough, and why doesn't she like her well you know?"

" Yeah man, condoms are only ninety-seven percent safe, a diaphragm in like ninety-nine point something, the two of them almost make it impossible, but still not fool proof, and as Bali will tell you none of them is as safe as not doing it, she still cool about handing them out, well the diaphragms. She gives the job of handing out the condoms to Amos and Callion, if I were you I would go to Callion, Amos will give you a lecture about not having sex, and how it's just better to just kiss, and how dat be fur ya wedding day you."

" Wow, you do him well, and I think he's right, I mean all Priscilla and I have done is kiss and it's the best dude."

" Don't say dude, dude. It sounds better when you say bud."

" Ok bud, and I have to add, I'm not really that experienced and all, I mean Priscilla is my first real girlfriend, before I was just arm candy."

" Yeah dude, like I am now, I mean the only reason I'm with Amelia is to say she's got a boyfriend, but I do kinda like her."

I had to make a heavy sigh as I said, " Bud I don't mean to piss you off, but she's kinda a bitch."

He gave a big grin as he asked, " Kinda?"

" Yeah, I mean since you are with her, I figured there must be some kind of redeeming quality to her, I mean you kinda cool."

He flecked his hand out as he said, " Hey that store is opening up," as if he was deflecting my question, " I've seen her at her worst and best, I wish she would allow the best to come back I miss her, hey do you want to join the brotherhood?"

He was standing so I stood up as I asked, " The brotherhood, is that some kinda gang or something?"

" No dude, it's really nothing, Stan and I started it, I was going to ask you the night you passed out, then the next night you sat with Priscilla, so I couldn't ask then, I mean it's not an exclusive club, but Stan says you have to be asked first. He's kinda the president, I can't because I'm involved with Amelia, and Paul is kinda involve with Shelia, man are the girls jealous of her, since you joined the house they had high hopes for you, then the Priscilla thing happened, well girls will be girls."

Then he took off, man he was a whirl wind in an Oklahoma summer as we shopped, That's from my Grandma thank you, as we were shopping for shoes I was finally able to say, " Hey I guess it'll be ok, can I talk it over with Priscilla first, and maybe I'll have an answer for you at lunch or something."

He nodded his head, and do you know we were back at the House of Night by eleven, boy he can really move, he parked it out front this time instead of letting me out out front, as we pulled out my few bags I asked, " I know this is your car, but who's are the others?"

He pointed to a car and replied, " The Chrysler three hundred is Amelia's, all the others are professors, except the two jeeps, the nice looking Eagle is Damien's, you know the huntress, and you see that really old dented army jeep, would you believe that's Priscilla's. I mean her parents drive huge cars, and they get her that thing, poor girl doesn't even have a license, I think they gave it to her to rub it in, like all this caused her to miss her birth right or something, the girl has to escape to the pump room just to be alone."

" Maybe I can teach her, I mean I have my license and don't even have a car."

" That would be cool man, hey when you get up there just put these in the chair, I'm sure she'll want to see you with them on, all girls do, but wear your old jeans, we're going to throw the ball around before the game."

" Game, what game?"

" O. U. We have to tape it, and because of temple we can't watch it until today, it's ok though, I mean we're all in the same boat, Amos has even watched a few times, it's our time away from the girls, they usually go with Bali and stuff."

" Ok if Priscilla goes with them, if not you'll know where I'll be."

" Man you got it bad."

I sighed as I said, " Yeah I guess I do, but this is all new to me."

" That's cool dude," he gave me a forgiving smile and continued, " now go get some sleep. I heard Rosie is grilling hot dogs for a change, so you may have no dishes to wash."

" That would be cool, but she's really cool, so if she needs any help I'll be there for her."

" It's kinda like you got two girls in your life."

I had to grin as I said, " Yeah, well kinda four, I mean five now."

He laughed loud as he asked, " Who are the other three?"

" Bali, well we all have her in our lives, then you have my Momma and Grandma, you should taste her cookies, I mean my Grandma's cookies, man they're the best."

He almost doubled over laughing now as he said, " Ma, man they don't count, a, and all Grandma's cookies taste best even if they come from a box, I, I mean they are your Grandma's after all."

I had to chuckle at myself as I said, " Yeah I guess you're right, hey man see you later, all right?"

" Cool dude."

As I walked up to my room I had to think how really cool Gene was, and how such a cool guy could go out with Amelia, then I made up my mind that there was something I wasn't seeing there. Then I got into the room and saw how Priscilla was lying on the bed, and how wonderful that I had her in my life, I then went to my closet to put my bags away and had to remember what Gene had told me, so I put them on the chair. Then I went to the closet and hung up the pants and T-shirt I had on, I went to the clock and saw a note there, it read; Hey John, You forgot to turn off the alarm, I reset the alarm for seven since we don't have to get up early and beat everyone, hey I really like last night, and you were such a gentleman. Hey did you see my shorts, well I watched you sleep for awhile, you were so cute. Love, your bond mate; Priscilla. P. S: I found my shorts, they were under the bed, man I find them in the weirdest places some times, wow isn't it weird to call each other lovers.

I turned and smiled at her as I saw them hanging off one leg, so as I moved to the bed I went ahead and grabbed them, then I came close to her and kissed her on the cheek, she rose her head a little, then I whispered, " You need to move bed hog."

She smiled as she moved and asked, " Did you get another pair of jeans?"

" Yeah two, I'll show them to you when we get up later, and your kind missing something again," then I held them up with one finger, she grabbed them as I whispered, " I don't mind you without them, maybe when I get a little money I can buy you a new pair."

She gave me a grin as I said, " Let me think where were last night before I so rudely fell asleep on you."

She wrapped her arm's around me and kissed me deeply, and I returned the favor, and we were off to the races again. I have no idea of when we fell asleep again.

She woke me with a whisper as she said, " Get up sleepy head, I think I'm ready."

I smacked my lips as I replied, " Ready for what?"

She whispered back, " To take all of me."

My eye's popped open to see her naked body, it was the perfection I remembered, can you believe I said, " Ho Priscilla not like this, we have to talk to Bali first."

I mean what was I saying, I know I wanted her, and I knew I wanted all of her, she folded her arm's over her naked breasts and said, " You don't love me anymore."

My mind then scrambled as I said, " No Babe, I love you, I'll do whatever you want."

She smiled at me and opened her mouth to talk, but all I heard was the scream of a dead cat, so I had to ask, " What?"

She opened her mouth and I heard that dead cat crying again, and her stomach suddenly got bigger, it was like watching Alien all over again, except for the baby that burst out her stomach, I then tried to scream, but all I heard was that damn dead cat. Then my real eye's fluttered open, that dead cat was an alarm clock going off, I felt a weight on my chest so I looked down and saw her lovely black hair on my chest, then her head turned into a yapping dog, it was then that I opened my eye's to a pounding on the door, then I heard a sound that didn't make any sense. " Laddie turn dat durn fool ting off!"

It was Amos yelling through the door so I quickly said, " Sorry Amos, I had a long day, I'm getting up to get it."

Then I ran to my clock and hit the snooze button, then there was the other sound so I had to follow it to find her clock and turn it off, then because I only hit the snooze button I went back and turned off my clock, I had to shake the cob webs out of my mind, then she rose her head. Well what was I going to do, I was trapped and had to wonder if my dream about her left any tell tale signs, and in a sense it wasn't a good dream either, so I quickly turned and check myself. Well at least the worst hadn't happened, that would have been really embarrassing, she then asked, " Jon what's wrong?"

What was going to say, I decided to go with the truth as I replied, " A I had a dream about you, and some times guys have problems in that department, I'm fine, well a, maybe we, well get ready for breakfast."

I kinda hoped it was a quick save as she said, " Oh Baby, I had a weird dream to."

" Me to . . . it was really weird, and it even included the alarm clocks, I think it may have made Amos mad though."

What could I tell her, and to my horror she asked, " Really, what was your dream about?"

Ok how was I going to tell her the truth about it, I decide I would start with the most horrible part first, " Well at the end you had a baby, and well it kinda burst out your stomach . . . and killed you." I then moved quickly to her side and said, " Baby I don't want you to die, if we do do it, can we use a condom and a diaphragm?"

She had a look of horror on her face as she asked, " Did you make sweet passionate love to me, but you kept falling out?"

" Well kinda, I wanted to, but my stomach kept saying no, hey was that your dream?"

" Kinda, except you excepted me as I kept saying we should wait, yet I was allowing you to do what you wanted to me."

" Well you know my mind on it, and if you said no I would never force myself on you, I mean that would Paramount to rape in my book."

She gave a shutter as she said, " Jon do you realize what just happened?"

" Yeah Babe, we just almost had the same dream."

" No Jon I don't think that's what it was, I think we were in each others dreams at the same time, we did have the same dream, we shared each others dream."

I shrugged as I said, " Maybe we should ask Bali if this is normal, I mean her and Amos are bond mates, they should know, oh and thank you, I think yours is cute also."

" What?"

" You just said my ass looked cute."

" Jon I didn't say that . . . I thought that, a, well, a-" the tone of her voice got louder, " Bali this is strange, Bali we need to talk to you!"

I then ran and grabbed my jeans and put them on, as Bali knocked on the door I moved to the door as Priscilla covered up, then I opened the door and allowed Amos and her in, he was the first to speak, " Aye dis better be important?"

Priscilla was shaking so I went to her side and spoke, " Priscilla thinks we just shared a dream, and as we spoke about it we think I heard her thought's."

Bali came to her side and asked, " Can you hear his thought's?" She put her head down and shook it as tears came to her eye's, Bali then asked, " Can you hear her thought's now?"

I replied, " No I don't think so, here let me close my eye's and see."

As I did I heard her think, " Dear god this can't be normal, I have so much to hide from him, like the time I was raped."

My eye's popped open as I realized that she wasn't talking to me, I was actually hearing her thought's, and as a reaction to what she thought I put my arm's around her and said, " Oh Babe I'm sorry for what happened to you, I'll protect you from that from now on."

She pushed me away as she screamed, " **You heard my thought's didn't you**?"

I couldn't lie to her so I nodded my head as I moved to my closet and said, " I'll just move back into my old room if you want." I knew I had to have a tear going down my face as I realized I had just lost my true love.

Amos the said, " Aye, laddie have da greatest connection yea ever heard of wee lassie."

Bali then said, " Yes Amos, we may have to contact the High Council, we're not set up for this."

I then sighed as I said, " I knew it, first this freak mark, then this freak ability, I'm just a freak of nature."

" No young man, you're no freak, you'll just have to learn how to control it, it could just be a deep bond, or a special ability, it may just be revealing itself, either way it can be controlled."

" Can it really, I mean I really don't want to leave Priscilla."

" Tell me if you can hear her thought's right now?"

" No, not really, well except right now, she's thinking how horrible it is that I can read her thought's, I'm so sorry Baby."

" Jon look at me and tell me if you can hear my thought's?"

I turned my head to her gaze and then I said, " You hate how much Amos's beard tickles your face."

Amos then said, " It be directional, laddie yea look at me und think."

I took me a few minutes longer, in my babble I thought, why do we think minutes when we mean seconds, I then said, " Amos that's embarrassing to say."

" Aye laddie I think yea be done, sorry wee lassie, aye be thinking bout da last time we tangoed."

Ok I knew that that was his word for sex, and it was very, very embarrassing to think, so looked up at the ceiling as Bali asked, " Why did you wait so long Jon?"

I replied with as little feeling as I could, " His thought's were more like a river, it was like swimming up stream, I guess you could say it was harder to receive, and kinda weird also, almost as if I was seeing through a window, where as Priscilla's and yours were more like you were speaking directly to me."

Priscilla then said, " But Bali he had his back to me the first time he read my thought's."

Bali then replied, " It's probably the special bond the two of you have, and since he's a first year student I believe in time he could do this with human's as well, Jon you're going to have to make a special effort not to look at anyone, until we can get someone to teach you how to use this special ability."

I then asked, " Does this happen very often?"

" No not very often, our senses are acute so we can see things that most beings can't, but most of us can't read minds, maybe one in a thousand has this ability, that's why most schools aren't equipped with a teacher to show you how to use this, and I've never heard of it manifesting in a fledgling."

Amos then said, " Aye laddie yea been given a special gift, und gifts are rarely gifted to da men."

" True true Amos, but in resent times there has been three that have been given special gifts, and the rumor of a Priest in Tulsa, well what Jon said the other night might be the truth of it, this land maybe be creating new and awesome creatures."

I had to smile at Priscilla, and she was wondering if she would also be gifted like me, then I saw a strange thing, it was like a second shadow around her, almost a halo of sorts, it was the most beautiful thing to look at. I just had to go to her and kiss her, she pushed me back and asked, " You were listening to my thought's weren't you?"

I turned my head away and replied, " Yeah Babe, but it was what I saw after that made me come over and kiss you, it was the most beautiful thing I ever saw, I think you're gifted as well, Bali she seemed to have a halo around her, I don't know how to explain it better then that."

Bali then came close to her and looked into her eye's, then she said, " I can feel it, but it hasn't manifested yet, it may take you a little while to manifest, but Jon you saw that, just how did you do that?"

" Well she thought she would like to be gifted, then as my mid was focused on that, well I just saw it."

" So you have to focus on it then you can see it?"

" I guess so, maybe I can see your gift, do you want me to try?"

" Yes, then try Amos."

So I moved and looked into her eye's, she was thinking of a hot dog covered with mustard and relish heaping over with onions, she started to glow a light blue hue, but it was different, it was as if it was shooting in all directions, then I said, " Yous is different, it looks nice with a calming effect, and Bali you really like onions don't you, do you order them specially for your hot dogs?"

She then asked, " Did you see that or did you read my mind?"

" I read your mind, your aura only came to me after I did that, hey Amos try to think of nothing, that maybe what triggers this other effect."

He replied, " Aye laddie I'll give it my special try, but it be hard to think wit such beauty in da room."

He then looked up at the ceiling and his aura came to me like a bright red sun, and was as a flash in my eye's and had to cover my eye's, but then I realized as I read his mind nothing came to me, it was like a blank slate, so I had to ask, " Hey Bali look away from me as I look at you, I may have found out something else."

She then said, " Ok Jon I'm looking at Priscilla."

So I turned my head to Bali and got nothing, but I did get from Priscilla, what is Jon doing, well I now had to speak, " Hey Babe were looking at me when you just thought right now?"

Priscilla replied, " Yeah why?"

" Bali it's not when I look at you, it's when you look at me, hey Amos when we first started were you looking at me or something else?"

He replied, " Aye I wuz, at sweet lassie."

Bali then asked, " So they have to direct their attention to you, then you can hear what they're thinking?"

" Yeah my first ability, the second one still just happens." I sighed as I looked at her and continued, " Amos's aura showed quicker then both Priscilla's and yours, I mean his was more like the red fiery of a sun, Priscilla's was more like a halo, and yours was more like the beams of a star. That's why I think of it as an aura, it kinda reminds me of one of those film of the corona of the sun during a full eclipse, it's kinda cool to look at, so what do you think?"

" Jon to say you've been gifted is an understatement, these have manifested so early, I have to wonder if you have any more surprised in store for us," she then narrowed her eye's and asked, " Wait, when did that happen?"

" When did what happen?"

" Hold still, Amos come here and look at his mark."

Priscilla then asked, " Hey, what is that, I've never seen anything like that before."

Amos then came in and rub my mark with his thumb and it hurt, so I said in a little angry voice, " Ouch that hurt!"

Amos then said, " Just checking laddie ta see ifen it be dirt."

" Ok your scaring the shit out of me, what is it?"

Priscilla then replied, " Your mark has been filled in, and it's not sapphire or turquoise, what is that, a kind of yellow?"

Bali relied, " No it's more like an ochre."

I then asked, " Do you mean yellow ochre, I mean I'm just going off what Priscilla and you said together, you know there's a green also, and I also mean that its close to her skin tone, with a little gold in it but really close."

Priscilla then put her hand to my forehead and said, " He nailed right on the head so to speak."

I smiled and said, " Hey I love you to Babe, so, what does this mean?"

Bali then asked, " Jon you heard that over the rest of our minds?"

" Well yes and no, I could hear both of your voices, but it was as if she was speaking louder, and yes babe I did tell you the truth about my dream, I don't know why I perceived it differently."

Bali then said, " That maybe your sub-conscience covering up what you did or didn't want to see or do, what was the dream you had Priscilla?"

I interjected, " A Bali, I think you would call it a wet dream, I think we should leave it at that."

Priscilla then added rather coarsely, " Jon if it will help I'll bare my soul, Bali I had a dream of doing it with Jon."

" And you don't want to do it with her?" Bali asked.

" Well yes I do," I had to smile and sigh at the same time, " but I'm firm on waiting until she's ready, but the end was the same, the baby burst out of her stomach and she died."

" Ok I think I understand a little better, this going to sound like psycho babble, but Priscilla I think you h ave intimacy problem with Jon, you want to be with Jon, but at the same time you're afraid of being with Jon. Jon probably felt this in you before and has an overwhelming feel to protect this in you,so he refuses to allow what your sub-conscience wants, in this way he changed what was in you to his state of mind. But in the end you both have a fear of what a baby will mean in your lives, so only at the end of the dream were you both able to agree on the dream, and I believe that he was in a way able to connect with your sub-conscience, the next part is the hardest to figure out, just how was he able to do this."

" I think I know how, when Amos came and woke me up to turn off our alarms, she was laying face down on my chest, I mean do you think that this would work if her eye's were closed?"

Priscilla then said in a shy voice, " A Jon my eye's may have been open, it used to freak my Mom out," she gave a big smile as she continued, " she said I was her little spider monkey when I was little, because I would get into the weirdest positions when I slept, I was all over my crib, then she allowed the nanny to take care of when I was big enough for a regular bed."

Bali smiled that welcoming smile as she said, " Well now we have that figured out, so the next thing to do is wait for the specialist, if you have a strange thing happen to you just come to me, I have resources to find out. Now why don't you two get ready for breakfast, I put a special order in for soy sausage for you two, and Callion is cooking today."

I smiled at Priscilla and as she caught my gaze I heard nothing, so I had to ask, " Were you just thinking of nothing right then?"

She replied, " No I was thinking just how much I like sausage patties."

" So was I, does that mean that if we're thinking of the same thing I won't hear your thought's?"

" Maybe not," Bali replied, " the thought's maybe similar so you don't trigger on them, but you still might be hearing them."

" Well thank you for your time Bali."

" Jon maybe you and Priscilla can eat with us today, I mean the professors will understand, but the kids may get a little freaked out so to speak. And Jon try not to listen into what the kids are thinking today if at all possible, maybe come back to your room until we get this all figured out, I hate to restricted you to your room though, but we must do what we must do for the kids."

I gave a heavy sigh as I answered, " For the kids then Bali."

She gave me a wary smile as she said, " And Jon I haven't thought of you as one of my kids since you got here, poor boy you had to grow up far to fast, I had a talk with your Grandmother and mother, it was very sad what you had to witness, divorce can be very cruel."

Then she turned and walked out, but I think I was at the point of falling apart, it's a lot to take in in one day, I put my face on Priscilla's stomach, I tried very hard not to cry, I couldn't stop myself, a man shouldn't cry and there I was, she then helped me up and took me into the bathroom. Then we did something we had never done before, we took a bath together, it was all I wanted in the world, I couldn't enjoy it, I was a blubbering idiot, it was the warmest I had ever felt with another human in my life. I can tell you I had a great show, the pain in my chest finally went away, but it was to late, we were out and fully dressed, it was more of the thought of seeing my Momma crying that really got to me, that seemed to hurt the worst. She wanted me to wear my new clothes, but I reminded her that I had to do the dishes, besides it was like wearing my comfort out in the open, and it seemed to bring me out of my funk, Priscilla was the best girlfriend a guy could have.


	6. Chapter 6

Why we weep

Why am I so abnormal

Written by Thomas G. Arndt

Chapter 6

We walked arm and arm don't to the dinning hall, we were met at the front door by Bali and Amos, we walk slowly with them as everyone stared, it had to be like those guys in the green mile. As they started I was flooded with all their thought's, I has to be like all those celebrities the first see the press, you know those guys that throw their camera's in their faces, it was so overwhelming. The person with the best thought was Amelia of all people, she thought there must be something wrong with me, Priscilla, or both of us. And not in a nasty way either, it seemed she was overly concerned about us, to make sure I was right I had to look at her as we entered the kitchen, as my concentration was on her, I saw a strange thing, her aura was as bright as a star. As we got our food I said with my head down, " Bali I think Amelia has the wrong calling."

We then moved to her table and sat down, as we did this she asked, " Why do you say that Jon?"

" She has a pure aura, I mean a really pure aura, it has to be one give by God, if you'll excuse me."

Then there was a loud moan and a sudden cry, then kids ran in crying, " There's something wrong with Amelia," and other kids crying, " I think she's dying!"

Bali jumped up and ran to the dinning room, all the professors with Amos and Priscilla and me in tow. Amelia was in the middle of the floor thrashing around, she grabbed her chest and curled up into a fetus position. All I could think was, great now I get to see a kid about to die, but then Bali said something that relieved all the tension, " It's ok children, she's finishing her change."

Amelia was changing right in front of us, in mere moments it was over and she had made the change, she lifted her head and Bali said, " Welcome to the brave new world of vampyres Amelia, we have to get you to the temple, and I'll make sure that we call the council, come dine with the elders until then."

I was over joyed as I went and kissed her on the cheek, Priscilla was right next to me, and she did the same, Amos and I helped her to her feet, and as we moved back to sit down Bali asked me, " Jon do you see a change in her?"

I then concentrated my vision on her and I did see a change in her, so I replied, " Yes Bali, her aura is more like yours now."

She smiled at me, and as she did I heard Amelia think, _what the hell is going on, _Bali then said, " Then you were right Jon, we were wrong about her, she has the markings of a High Priestess."

I then gave Amelia a wary smile as I said, " Amelia you may want to look away, unless you want me to know your business."

She then thought, _I'm a High Priestess, _then after some inner babble she thought, _What the hell, _Bali forced her head so she was looking at her and said, " John has a special ability, he can hear your thought's if you're looking at him, it manifested just this evening."

She kinda looked down and said, " Oh I see, that's why you're in here."

She then took a glimpse at at me and I heard, f_reak,_ I just could stop myself as I replied, " I'm not a freak!"

She then ducked her head away in surprise as she said, " Holy shit, oh that was really bad, I'm so sorry Bali."

Bali then replied in a calm friendly voice, " Amelia you're now a Priestess in training, you must learn how to control what you think about others, I could force you to look at him for hours until you get this under control, would you really like me to do that?"

" No Bali, I'm really, really sorry."

" Don't tell me Amelia, and remember he'll know if you are lying to him."

" Sorry thing two."

I could hear that she really meant it, even though she could have done it in a better way, I went ahead and said, " We love you to Amelia." She made the mistake of smiling at me as she thought, _Hey I think he meant it, I wonder what dweeb one thinks about that, I bet she's pissed, _so I added, " My love will be very proud of how you think about her, do you think I should tell her?"

" Ok, ok, I'm sorry I thought about you like that Priscilla, and I guess I love you to thing one."

Bali then said in a stern voice, " Jon you should be careful how you perceive what other people are thinking, you may also have to learn a little control, maybe the sword master can include you in his Ti chi class."

I put my head down and said, " Ok Bali, what time is it, and where do I have to go to attend."

" Today after breakfast," came from Callion, " we meet at the grove, Amelia can bring you, after all the only two that require my class is the both of you."

I had a horrible idea, but I'm glad it was me that spoke it, Amelia then asked, " Bali I'm a full grown vampyre, do I still have to go?"

" You are here for just a little while longer," Bali replied with a firmness I had never heard in her voice and added, " you still have to abide by what I feel is right, you will get your anger control issues under control, now lets eat so you two can get to your classes."

So I had to go out to a class that I didn't want to go to with a girl that didn't want to go either, with a girl I would prefer not to be with, then I had a thought so I spoke it out loud, " Bali what about the dishes?"

" They'll wait for you Jon."

I then kissed Priscilla on the forehead as I whispered to her, " I'll try to get done as soon as I can babe so we still have our time to draw and write."

She then kissed me on the cheek, and said in a small voice, " I'll go get your pad."

I then asked in a normal voice, " Hey what are we having for lunch?"

Felicia then replied, " I haven't decided yet."

" What?"

Bali smile as she replied, " The professors and I cook on Sunday, Callion has lunch next week, and I think Amos has breakfast."

Priscilla then said, " Ug, chipped beef, is that all you know how to cook Amos?"

He replied, " Nae wee lassie, Aye burn me a good haggis, but aye been asked to cook it nae a more."

Bali actually giggled as she said, " Amos you can cook that any time for me."

So I had to just ask as I knew the answer, but it felt good, and I asked it with a smile on my face, " Hey Amos I thought you said you weren't Scottish?"

He quickly turned his head and as he took in my smile he replied with his own smile, " Yea be jushin Amos would ya be laddie?"

" Yeah Amos, I thought I would just check."

Even he had to laugh at that, we all then started to eat our breakfast, there was small talk here and there, I had to figure the loud voices were when people looked at me, and Bali was right, I had to learn how to shut this out. I had to think that Amos and Bali looked the same as the two of us, well not really the same, what I meant was Bali sat the opposite of me as Amos sat the opposite of Priscilla. They both had their hands inner twined as Priscilla and I did, Amos and I were in T-shirts, and the women had on beautiful dresses, he ate in big chews as I did, where Bali and Priscilla ate like rabbits. Bali had gorgeous long blonde almost white hair, Priscilla had beautiful short black hair, Amos had a very long red bread, I had no idea if I could even grow a bread. So in this way we were like opposite mirror images, but I had to think they were made for each other just like us, I felt very good about us as we sat there. I had to hope that Priscilla was as happy with me as I was with her, I turned my head and asked in a whisper, " Priscilla are you as happy as I am?"

Bali then just said, " Jon that's a loaded question, a good relationship isn't always based on how happy you are, it has to be formed through trust, and truthfulness."

Amos then added, " Aye und seef control, und nae accounting ta yea und her dat is."

" Yes my bond mate, that is correct, especially no account, jealously and anger will always come with love and happiness, they're evil twins always ready to attack you and your love."

So I had to ask, " Kinda like Ying and Yang right?"

Callion then came in as he asked, " Is someone discussing martial arts?"

Bali smiled as she replied, " No, young Jon was comparing something to Ying and Yang, Callion, Jon will be joining your class after breakfast."

" Anger issues again mistress?"

I replied, " No control issues."

She then added, " You see young Jon has unique issues with his new abilities, you see if you look at him he can read your mind."

I knew his gaze hit me, because I could hear him think, _That would be superb in combat,_ so I had to just ask, " Bali can I answer his thought's?"

She replied with a concerned look, " Go ahead Jon."

I then looked at him as I replied, " It probably would be good in combat if I knew how to fight, and this is why have I have to learn self-control, and maybe how to fight just in case I have to defend myself."

He then answered me, " Very good young master, meet us out just left of the grove."

So we finished eating, and Amelia dragged me out to Ti Chi, and the whole time she complained that she was even out there, it seemed more like stretching exercises to me. Then I went to the kitchen and did the morning dishes, there were very few pans and the normal amount of dishes, I had to be happy that Callion only cooked scrambled eggs. Then Priscilla and I sat just outside the grove as she had a fear of going into it, Felicia made a grain concoction for lunch, I went out and did a little more Ti Chi on my own after I finished the dishes. I figured if a little helped, a whole lot would do wonders. Priscilla joined me this time, and as we fell into making out, we then laid on each other as we tried to draw and write, we were terrible as we seemed to always end up kissing. That night when Rosie came in, and I was busy as a bee helping her, she is a great woman with a great sense of humor, even though I don't understand all her jokes, I just had to laugh by the way she told them. It was then how true it was that I had said she was a woman in my life.

Again Priscilla met me after we were done, we were joking as the door closed, she joined right into what we were talking about, then as Rosie got into her car, I leaned over to her and kissed her. She then deepened the kiss and we went up the steps to our room, we stumbled up the steps, I mean it's hard to kiss and walk up steps at the same time, this was all so new to us, and I had to think this would never end. It may wear off over time, but the way she tasted I had to hoped that it never really did, and man did she taste good. We did the same as we had done the other night, she took a bath as I took a shower, and I so wanted to join her in her bath, I thought about faking that I was hurt again, but I just couldn't do that to her. So I would deal with my little problem, and besides I got to see her in her underwear, well sort of, underwear over underwear, the next evening was Monday so it was back to school for us. Since I had already bought stuff, I was able to allow my card to build up a little, then I made sure that I paid for all the stuff I had added, Bali took a little, but refused to be repaid for the suit. Then came the three and a half week mark, it was a Wednesday, and my Momma and Grandma were coming to visit me, I was so excited that they were coming to my first open house.

They used casual Wednesday so it wouldn't disrupt classes, and best of all Priscilla's parents were coming to, she wasn't as excite as I was that they were coming, my specialist made it a point to visit with us. Her name was Sandy, can you imagine a vampire named Sandy, Felicia made it a point to call her miss Day, my Momma would say she flaps her lips to much, but it didn't bother me, my Grandma said she was as sweet as apple pie, what ever that meant. She also told me that she would be good for me because I enjoyed talking so much, and she was right, I enjoyed talking to her, plus she was a lot of fun to be around. Priscilla was allowed into my private classes with her, not as an observer you see, as we lived together I had to learn how to control this especially around her, she roomed with the other teachers, but she would spend long mights with us. She explained how it was weird that a man be gifted, and I was powerfully gifted, she was very happy to tutor us in everything, she also explained that with age my gifts may weaken or strengthen, it would be really cool if they weakened, but I was cool with either.

Anyways at mid-night we were all instructed to meet in the dinning room, Priscilla and I entered arm and arm, they had brought a big box, I had to smile as we both walked over. I then hugged them both and my Momma said, " Baby boy I've missed you so much."

I replied in a low voice, " I've missed you so much Momma, and I've gone through so much, I missed you so much to Grandma."

Grandma then answered, " We all have, Bali bought you a beautiful coffin, and everyone cried, it was very beautiful, should I tell him the rest?"

My Momma saw the tear in my eye, she gave me a tissue and cleared her throat and continued, " Your father showed up, and he cried all the way to your grave side."

I could hear my voice break as I asked, " Daddy cried?"

" Yes honey, he cried, and he cried hard."

I sat down with this, well more like fell into the chair, I saw that he had made my Momma cry, it seemed so unreal to me, my Daddy cried over my death, why would he cry over me, didn't he hate me. Then I felt a hand on my shoulder, I raised my head to see Priscilla, it was wrong, why was I crying over the fact that the Dad that hated me cried, did he really care about what happened to me. I then grabbed her and put her on my lap and kissed her hard, then I turned my head back to them and said, " Momma and Grandma I would like to introduce you to Priscilla, her and I are bond mates."

I was about to do opposite introduction when my Momma asked, " Bond mates, does that mean the two of you are having sex?"

My face must have gotten really red as I replied, " God no Momma, being a bond mate is much deeper then that, and Momma if one day she excepts me willing to have sex with her I'll do it willingly, Momma I love her, and we're made for each other."

Momma said a little hard, " Boy what do you know about love?"

" Well I know it's deeper then just sex," I snapped at her and continued, " and Priscilla and I have that, if the two of us were separated we would both die, now Momma can I continue?"

My Momma waved her hand in dismissal, so I went on and said, " Priscilla this is my Momma and Grandma, I think you can call them that?"

Priscilla put her hand out to my Momma and she sneered at it, Grandma took it and said, " Virginia! The girl only offered you her hand, the least you could do is take it! Thank you young lady, how old are you, and are you from Oklahoma City?"

She put her leg over her other and replied, " Bethany, and I'm sixteen, Jon told me your full blooded Cherokee, that's so cool, we met before he told me that, am I rambling, I some times do when I'm nervous?"

" No dear, you're fine, my daughter was raised a nice girl, we call her Gini when she's being nice, and Virginia when she's being a bore, Gini at least shake the girls hand."

Momma snapped out her hand and snapped, " Fine! How are you doing Priscilla, are you related to Elvis Presley?"

I knew she was just being mean, but we both had to laugh, and as our heads prevailed she replied, " That's what Jon asked when we first met, I guess like mother, like son."

My Momma then giggled as I put my hand on her shoulder, moments later we were all laughing, a very rich couple then came in, I mean they had to have serious money. Priscilla then jumped off my lap, her hand tightened on my shoulder as she said in a weak voice, " My Mom and dad are here."

I then looked really hard to see that a very swarthy man in an Armony suit, his wife was an inch taller then him, probably because of her three inch heels, she could easily be one of those women that you saw in a magazines with a martini in one hand. In fact I think she would be at home with it, her blonde hair had a hint of red in it, I think you call it strawberry blonde, he had short curly hair, his chin was dark as if he needed a shave, he then smiled a smile that you only thought you'd see on a movie villain. Then he spoke and it sounded like he said, " Booby."

Then Priscilla spoke, and I'm not even going to try and write down what she said, my Dad had taught me a smattering of German, and I knew she was speaking a foreign tongue as if she had spoken it all her life. And do you believe she curtsied, like he was some kind of royalty or something, she then turned and spoke to her Momma, and that's all I understood. She then turned to us and said, " Mommy and Daddy I would like you to meet him, this is my bond mate Jonathan."

The woman then put her hand out and said, " It's nice to meet you my dear boy, I hope you're doing well, so glad to meet you."

Her voice was the type that seemed to look down on everyone, and at this very moment I think she was looking down on me, her father did one of those fake arm punching things, you know the type that looked totally uncomfortable as he did it. I smiled at him as I kissed the wives cheek, then I stuck out my hand to him, well at least he had a hard hand shake, then he grabbed me and kissed me on each cheek, Priscilla then blurted out something in her language. As he drew back I said, " Nice to meet the two of you, this is my Grandma and Momma."

He then blurted out something in their tongue, Priscilla then said something in a very angry tone and he quieted down right away, then he said in very broken English, " It be true, dat you two, be how you say, a woo, woo, woo."

Well that was very easy to figure out, he just asked if we were American Indians, I had to smile at him as I saw Priscilla's cheeks turn red, then she spit at him in her foreign tongue, and he spit back just as fast, the exchange got heat and faster. She then stuck her finger in his face, he put his hands on his hips as he went right along with her, her eye's seemed to furrow all up as tears rolled down her cheeks, he was making her cry and I had to put a stop to this, man am I glad Bali is our High Priestess. She burst into the room and started to talk to her Dad in their tongue, I then took Priscilla into my arm's and sat next to my Grandma, my Momma even got up to protect her, I mean it was the American way, and we were ready for a knock down drag out fight. Bali then put her hand out and pointed one of her very long finger nails, he lifted his head and walked out, then her mother came to the three of us, she looked as if we had just seen her dirty secret. She then said, " I have to go dear, here I brought you this, and please excuse my husband for how he acted, he's under a lot of stress, I think the pressure of his business is getting to him."

We all then nodded to her, and then she turned and left, I held her on my lap and said, " Honey, I'm right here and I'm not going to leave you, now put your head on my shoulder and I'll keep you safe."

She cried as she spoke, " Oh Jon."

My Grandma then stroked her hair as she said, " Yes Honey were all here for you, hey I brought one of Jon's favorites."

She then opened one of her ever present tins, my Momma then bent down and said, as she kissed her on top of her head, " We're really here for Jon, and as you are now with my son, so we are here with you, don't worry we'll help you through this."

She then lifted her head and asked, " Are you guys really with me, I mean do you really want to help me through this?"

I gave her a light peck on cheek and replied, " My momma was mad only because she thinks of me still as her baby boy, and you have stolen my heart, But in time I knew she would realize that it was you and me forever. And for Grandma, well she loves everyone, she even loves those whom anger her, she says that if someone should hit you in the cheek offer them the other one."

Priscilla then chuckled and said, " I'd probably slap them silly."

My Momma then laughed as she said, " You and me to girl."

Grandma then gave a million dollar smile and said, " Yes some times it's hard to resist temptation, but in the end you must always apologize so as not to keep an account."

I then said, " Hey that's one of the things Amos said about relationships."

Priscilla then kissed me as she said, " Maybe that gives us a head start on our relationship then."

I kissed her back and said, " I think so Babe."

It was strange but both my Momma and Grandma said the same thing, " Puppy love."

They then both laughed, and then my Grandma stared at me, it was that stare that said you've got your work cut out for you, Priscilla wasn't really in any trouble, or was she any trouble for me, I mean she did have a temper on her, but all I had to do was launch the tickle monster on her and we were ok. Of course I already knew to be careful with this, you see I once went to long on one of my sisters and you should have seen what happened, well what happened usually made them cry, and that's just not a good thing to do to a girl. I'm not sure that would ever happen to a guy, well especially because I've never had a reason to do it to a guy. Then we opened up our care packages that our mothers had brought, I had to giggle at the very short skirt and two pair of boot her mother had brought her, well not the skirt so much, it was really the boots and how much she had nailed it right on the head. Then we went to the thick of it, as we entered the realm of vampires and explained my new powers, at least it was easier then it was to explain what it meant to be bonded. I mean some parts were really easy, they kinda sounded more sexual then intimate related, I think Grandma understood better then my Momma.

In my care package was a new pair of jeans and a photo album, my Momma gave me that, Cookies in a tin and a box with one of my Grandma's famous fruit cakes, and believe this or not, but there was even a pink comforter, I had to wonder how she always seemed to know stuff. Grandma Cathleen was a Cherokee Indian and a great old lady, my Grandpa always call her Lady Dame, or his Indian Princess, I had a great hope that Priscilla and I would love like that when we reached their age, we would out live them of course, maybe even their second life. Hell I was the eldest of five and I was for sure going to out live all of them, but that's to much to worry about now, I mean we're only sixteen. We had a good six to possibly eight hundred years ahead of us, well that's if the sun doesn't explode or something like that, we were living for today, and today we had cookies and a fruit cake to eat.

We ended the day as usual, well except for the kissing of my Grandma and Momma as they had to leave, Bali allowed us to show them our room, my Momma's eye's never left our huge bed. Grandma gave Priscilla an extra huge hug, I loved how the two of them got along, Priscilla didn't even want to try the fruit cake, I had to coax her into trying it, when she did and tried a small piece, of course I was used to this as most people feared fruit cake. I can't blame them. I've tasted what most people call fruit cake, and it didn't taste good, so most looked at my Grandma's in that category, but after they tasted it they were happily surprised, and as Priscilla got a taste of mine, she then got herself a small wedge. I offer everyone a piece, and the only two that excepted were Amos and Rosie, he got the largest piece, and I saw Bali eating from his plate, Rosie told me how good that fruit cake was. She had out her bottle of cooking chary out, she told me how she always ate it that way, and how she took a chance and fold that it didn't need it. All things consider it's a wonder I even seen Christmas coming, it was a very hard holiday for young fledglings, you see because of the problem of being away from adult vampires and such, and all of them wanting to visit their parents. Bali had to restrict all of them to only three days, she made sure everyone got off the three day of Christmas, so she always set that they would leave on the twenty fourth at eight p. m. and required to be back by seven on the twenty seventh a. m. And again on the thirty first thru the second of the next year, of course I didn't have to worry about that because everyone thought I was dead, and I have to say the place was dead and I had the run of the place to myself.

Out of an entire house of twenty-four students, six professors, Bali and Amos, there were only three of us left here, and it's not hard to guess, Amos and Bali stayed for the kids, and I had no where to go, early on the twenty fourth we went and shopped. I bought a long scarf for Bali, a really cool wool hat for Amos, a pink sweater for Momma, a set of diamond earrings for Grandma, not really all that expensive, a navy blue T-shirt that said BABY for Priscilla, I figured I would cross out the Y and put an E. I looked at some diamond earring for her also, except I didn't have enough money, Bali saw what I was looking at, and she said I could owe her, I almost passed them up, but what's another three hundred dollars to owe her, so I went for it. They were only studs, but the diamonds were really rare, Bali told me they were called blue, they looked white to me, and since I was so good at present wrapping, we stopped so I could get all my presents wrapped. The whole time we shopped they looked at me as if something was wrong, and I spent all my time with them, I mean when I went to my room I really missed Priscilla and would usually go to sleep crying, I don't know why I cried so much, I mean I am a man.

We decided that we would share the chores, well except for the dish washing, I mean I still had my job to do, on the twenty fourth and twenty sixth Rosie came in and cooked us dinner, it was really cool that Bali made her sit down and eat with us. On the twenty fourth Bali did the breakfast, and I did the lunch, on the twenty fifth Amos did the breakfast, Bali did the lunch and I did the dinner, I went all out and cook a ham, my Grandma's recipe, mashed potatoes, butter carrots, cheesed broccoli with dinner rolls. Bali did breakfast on the twenty sixth and we made Amos use the left overs, I don't think I was ready for his haggis yet, ok it might have been good with ketchup, Bali said it was really good. But even my Grandpa said there was no way to make it taste good, and in secret Bali thanked me, so I had to think I had done right, and in the end I had to think I dodge a bullet, I mean if your in love you have to say you love what the other half does, not that I had to do that yet.

On the twenty fourth we had a good old time exchanging gifts, well really it was the morning of the twenty fifth, so we didn't do anything wrong, and I couldn't wait to see their faces. Bali bought me a T-shirt that said Mean Machine, and it was a forest green, it wasn't my favorite color, but I didn't have anything against it, and Amos bought me a wool hat also, he called it a tam, it kinda looks like a beret, and it's really cool looking. I had to ask if it would be ok to wear with my suit, she told me only with my tweed one, so I made my mind up to wear my tweed one to next temple. Amos had told me that he got it in the colors of my Grandpa's clan, he was a McCullen, and apparently my clans colors were really cool, he told me that he would get me my kilt in the hear future. Oh I should tell you what Bali and Amos got one another, she got him a really cool green scarf with a gold pattern in it, what he got her was one of those really cool Canon cameras, you know the really thin ones, I had to show her how to use it. It was kinda funny, she took a picture of me then Amos, then the both of us, I took a picture of her, and one of the two of them, then Amos took a picture of the two of us, we wore our gifts in this one, then I set it up on the tripod and took a picture of all of us. We used Amos as the center of the picture so I could show her how to set the timer, then we ran and waited for the picture, we were laughing and having a great time. Then we moved to her lap top and I showed her how to down load it, and then how to dump the memory so she it could hold more pictures, I think the thing can hold one hundred pictures. Then she set her wall paper with the one of all three of us, I made her promise to make it the class picture when she had the time, then I showed her how to print the pictures, even though she only had a regular printer, I told her that they made special printers for just that. She said she would get them all printed and framed in time, and I think she had the time of her life, or unlife as it was.

You see the next day I want to impress someone that was do at five, my love was scheduled to come home then, so I went out at four thirty a. m. to make sure I didn't miss her, even though she liked to be late, she said it was only fashionable. I left my presents on our table to surprise her with, and since I figured she would be late, I mean she set the time, and so she could get settled in first, she had invited me to he home, but after the way her father had acted I felt it was only right. She had told me that her father would have to get used to me, so I told her I would go to her house on the fourth of July, but for just now we would play it safe, and I had to say, except for the tears when I tried to sleep, it had been a good Christmas. I had no idea of what would happen, I can't say that I disliked the man since I had barely even met the man, all I seen of the man was him yelling at Priscilla.

At five I took my best pose so she could see my new tam and the sports jacket she had bought me a few weeks ago, at six I stood at one of the large pillars that help up the roof over the drive thru that protested the entrance to the front door. By seven I was passing the small walkway that went from the door way to the main parking lot, Amos had come out and was sitting on one of the large flower pots out front with dead flowers in it. At eight I was really moving down the drive and back to the house, both Gene and Callion had joined us as Amos was moving right along with me, I felt like pulling out all my hair. By ten I was hitting myself for not going with her, Bali then came out and said, " Amos and Callion I've called her home and no one is answering, Makari has issued a general alert, will you two do the same for the house and go if you can find her."

The two of them then ran and got into a black Hummer, not one of the house buses, it was the houses personal one for long trips, I went to join them when Gene grabbed my arm, he smiled at me as he shook his head. My eye's then turned to Bali as I pleaded with her with them, she then said, " Jon they'll do better by themselves, but you can help by keeping a level head, for how go to your room and wait for her, if they find her I'll make sure she'll know where you are, and her parents still might do the right thing."

I knew she was right, but I so wanted to be out there looking for her, so I moved to my room and tried to sit, I just couldn't, so I moved to the corner and broke down to the floor and started to cry, I put my arm's over my head and felt the desperation sink in. My world had just been sucked out of me, as I sunk to the floor I saw the clock and it was ten fifteen, then ten twenty, twenty-three, the clock seemed my enemy at this point, I hit every part of my room in time, I made it out to the parking lot several times. Then back to our room, the lounge, to our room, I then did something stupid, I went to her closet and realized that she had taken all her favorite clothes, I knew she hadn't planned to leave me long, she hadn't taken enough clothes, but why did she have to take all her favorite clothes. I fell to the floor and started to cry in earnest, why didn't she leave something so I could smell her, I could hear everyone knocking on my door, but I couldn't get up to answer, all I wanted to do was die.

You see the next thing I did wasn't really clear to me, I crawled to the bathroom and opened up all her favorite scents, I had to think that maybe I was smothering her and she wanted out. Was I to intense for her, I drew a bath and put all the stuff in there as if she was going to take a bath, the steam and smells just travel all over my body, I sat next to the bathroom door and watched the main door. I couldn't see the door through the tears, but I imagined that she was in the room worrying about some mundane thing, I just sat there within myself and crying, holding my knees as tightly as I could and racking back and forth. It was twelve eighteen when the door flew open, there she stood shaking like a leaf, I sprang up and flew across the room, we met about half way and I wrapped my arm's around her and swung her around the room, I kissed her all over the face and was crying happy tears.

We finally tripped and fell into our bed, I could see she was crying just as hard as I was, I set her down on the edge of the bed and gave her the biggest hug I could, and I think we must have kissed another fifteen minutes. It was as if we weren't going to let each other go again. She missed me and didn't plan on leaving me, so it had to be something to do with her father after all, she giggled as she looked at me and asked, " You drew me a bath?"

I chuckle as I replied, " Not really, and by now it's probably really cold, you see I thought I would never see you again, and when I saw that you took all your favorite clothes I just had to smell you, it was the only way I could think of doing it, what happened Priscilla?"

She then hiccuped out, " I, it was my father, he, he put me under lock and key, h, he was determined to get ha, his little girl back, I, I tried to reason with him, ba, he, but he wouldn't listen ta,ta me, h, he wouldn't even let my Mom see me, I, it was bad Jon."

" I should have sucked it up and went with you."

" NO JON! He was fully prepared to kill you, he had a gun in his belt, I, I"m sure it was meant for ya, you, ha, he took my cell phone and everything, just before they got me I heard Makari yelling at him, a, and I'm sure I heard a gun shot. Oh Jon I hope he hasn't started a war, I, I can't loose you and him ta, to, ha, he is so ignorant, ha, he thinks he can just keep ma, me and the vampirism wa, will just wear off, I, I don't want to fight my family, oh Jon what am I to do?"

" First Babe," using my best stern voice, " you're never going home again, if he wants to see you he'll just have to come here in my presents, speaking of presents come over hear and see what I got you for Christmas."

I figured to get her mind off her father, so I moved her to the chair next to the table, and as her shaking finally stopped I gave her the biggest one first, she opened it and looked at it, and as she did I said, " I figured I would X out the Y and put an E there, I also figured if it was big enough you could wear it to bed."

" Don't Jon, I love it just as it is."

I then handed her the small box, her hand trembled as she reached across the table for it, she very slowly opened it, as she cracked it opened to see the diamond earrings her smile was the biggest I had ever seen. It was as if a weight had been lifted off her shoulder's, the entire time I felt how anxious she was, and it seemed to blow out of her as she saw them, she started to giggle and cry at the same time. Then she said, " They are the most beautiful things I have ever seen, will you help me put them in?"

I smiled at her from ear to ear as I moved to help her put them in, I then said, " Bali went with me to pick them out, but it turned out I didn't need her help, she told me that they're blue diamonds."

She took one and I took the other and helped her put them in, she then ran to the bathroom and looked at them one at a time, then she said, " Jon they're beautiful, but they're to expansive, you really shouldn't have."

At the exact same time a voice cleared her throat at the door and asked, " May I come in?"

I turned my head to see Bali as I replied, " Sure thing Bali, just sit in one of the chairs."

Then her and Amos came in and each took a chair, so I moved from the bathroom with Priscilla and sat on the bed, we both knew she was about to read the riot act to her, so she was scared and I was scared for her. Amos had put her bags just inside the door, all five of them, he then said, " Yea done did ya a favor ta keep ya bag with ya, we dunt woot ta disurb do enterin da house, well da Callion dun da end ta all, dae nae da sweet lassie be gone be noe."

I think Amos's language got worse when he was upset, then Bali's eye's got very stern as she said, " Missy your father is banded from the campus from this day forward, you are banded from seeing your father away from this campus unless you're supervised. Do you know what your bond mate went through, what would your father do if we made his wife stay away from him, let alone the damage he may have caused. Your father is a menace to himself and you, if you had died he would and his family would have been held directly responsible for that. You are no longer human, and we protect our own, just be glad that the High Priestess didn't call for a purge. That would have been the worst thing to happen, I really had to talk to her so she wouldn't call one, so young lady what do you have to say for yourself?"

She had terror in her eye's as she said, " Jon has already banded me from seeing him without him, and I'll do what ever he says."

Ok I had to look at her with a wrinkled nose as I realized two things, first she never listened to me, and why did she need four bags for three days, I mean I knew one was her personal bag, but the other four, so I said a elongated, " Oh Really?"

She giggle as she admitted, " Ok, not really, but the both of you have made a compelling argument, so I'll listen this time, hey can my Mom still visit?"

Bali gave her a gentle smile as she replied, " She's already agreed to never bring him with her when she visits again, of course I explained to her what would happen if she went again my ruling, and what may happen if he acts out just one more time, plus the added information of the possible purge."

I had to smile at her as I felt we were on the same page, and at her being grown up enough to understand what almost happened, we were both looking at Priscilla. Bali then came close and said, " We were all worried about you, of course the most worried was Jon, a close second was Amos and me, then you have all the professors, do you know the rage he caused, and if we had found you dead it would have been unprecedented. Your father is truly a menace to himself and those he claims to love around him, if he looked at you for one minute as a daughter and not as a thing to own, he would appreciate Jon for what he is and not be so unkind to such a good child." Then she allowed that to sink in a few seconds, then she continued, " A bond mate of course, he maybe mostly human, but upon your death his rage would have been uncontrollable, he wouldn't have been able to control that rage until it had been sated. Your father has to realize he's no mere boy, he wouldn't have allowed anything to get in his way, he would have killed until he felt that all had been killed that had killed you, a bond mate can fight beyond death."

Then came from Amos whom had allowed Bali to talk until right then, " Aye lassie, he be und uncontrollable force of da will, bonded fur leef, be it fur love ur kindness, ifen he be yur responsibility yea be willen him ta do dis fur ya, und yea have ta pay yea leef ta him."

I put my hand up and spoke at the same time, " The way you're saying it Amos, it's if I belong to her."

" Aye laddie yea bond be clear, und we can nae escape it, if yea be on da utter side of da world, yea would know, so yea und her belong ta one another. Many a bow will try but yea can never shake da bond, and yea both can try ta love another, but ya willed ta each utter."

" Ok, let me understand, we belong to one another, but I'm her bond mate and she is nothing but my mate, so as you are saying I'm her bonded mate even after she becomes a High Priestess, so as the books say, she can have a mate, and a bonded human with a group of bonded warriors, but all I'll ever be is her bonded mate and nothing else."

Amos then leaned back in his chair as if was very proud of what he had just done, he crossed his massive arm's and smiled at me, Bali on the other hand had a very serious look upon her face, I think she understood as she tapped he finger on her chin as if she was thinking. So I had to figure she was trying to come up with a good answer as she thought, my loved stared at me as if she was waiting for the same answer, Bali then let out a deep breath. All she could do was shake her head as she answered, " I see no way around it Jon, it's our way, you are beholding to her, unlike she is to you, I had never thought about it until you put it that way, our society is all about equals, and yet it is so tilted when it comes to this."

Priscilla then asked, " What are you saying, what does beholding to mean?"

I looked down to my lap and saw my hands there, I could almost feel the shackles there, I drew in a slight breath and the replied, " I can only love you until I die, where as you can love whomever you want, it's like I've been made a slave to our love."

Her head then shot around the room as she said, " But I love him, I'll always love him, can't he just love me until I die?"

Bali put her hand on Priscilla's shoulder and replied, " It's not that he hates you Priscilla, it's the thought of being a slave, Jon has a very independent spirit, and being a bond mate makes him a slave to your whims, so in his mind he will always bare these shackles, do you understand his problem, it's not with you."

She started to sob as she said, " I love him, can't he just love me, he just has to love all of me, as I love him, why, why can't we just break it, we have to break it, I want him to love me again."

Amos then replied, " Aye lassie, many have tried, nae have da been unless one have dawd, he be dawd ifen ya try."

Bali added, " The two of you are empathicly linked, his removal from you would hurt as much as it would hurt him, only three women have survived, none of the men."

I had to ask the most miserable question I could think of, " What would it be like if she fell out of love with me?"

" The worst Jon, but my description would pale in comparison to reality, so I won't even try to explain it to you, as I've never fell out of love with my bond mate."

Amos added a sorrowful, " Aye sweet lassie, tis rare."

I really need a little love right now, so I took a deep breath and asked, " Ok. Well then, what did you get me for Christmas, as we are still in love for right now."

It hadn't really passed my thought's until I saw the miserable look on her face, the fact that she hadn't gotten me a thing just started to go through my mind. She dropped to her knees and cried very loudly, " Please forgive me, I, I don't, I ma, mean I thought, ta, to, b, but I really didn't," her tone faded as she continued, " do you want you gifts ba, back?"

This was all new to me, but my Momma always said once a gift was given you never take it back, so I said as tears went down my face, " No Babe, I'll always by you gifts, even if you hate me, I'll always love you, and besides it just wouldn't be right."

You could say that after I said that I really expected a maelstrom and she didn't disappoint me, " DAMMIT JON! Listen to me! I've been a little busy as you know! When I got to my Dad's he immediately put me under lock and key! Dammit he had two guards! I had a little problem of my own to deal with!"

It was a little different then I thought, so I may have been a little flat with what I said next, " Ok Babe, no problem."

I think it may have been best just to shut up, yeah I think that would have been best, as I watched her run into the bathroom crying, and then with all the strength she slammed the door. It may have been a little over dramatic, but she got her point across, she was definitely and totally mad, the normal me would have gone after her, but I was completely stunned, Bali gave me a blank stare as she asked, " Jon do you know what Luna's special power is?"

" I'm sorry Bali I really don't."

" Using advent moon light she can move from one place to another, Priscilla was well guarded, she had to use her power to get into Priscilla's room, and the use of these powers don't come cheap, she may have to rest for days. And to get into Priscilla's well lite room we had to bend the natural laws of moon light, if this wasn't bad enough she had to do it twice to get her out or her room, we may not see Luna for weeks, and Priscilla was willing to pay the price for this. In a way she did this for you, now as she also loves her father , she was willing to do this for the love of you, and how do you repay her, you accuse her of what really wasn't her intent, in a way you could look at it as your Christmas present. We could have gotten in there by our own means, and it would have surely been a war with the human's, in a way we all owe Luna for not allowing this to happen, and Priscilla for excepting her help, so we all owe both of them."

I put my head down as deeply as I could and said, " I didn't know the cost for her was so high, what ever debt Priscilla owes Luna I'm willing to pay, I love her and will take it upon myself."

Priscilla then slammed the door open and came over to me and put her finger in my face as she yelled at me, " NO JON! IF YOU LOVE ME THEN WE'RE A TEAM, WE PAY THIS ONE AS A TEAM, YOU WILL NOT FALL UPON YOUR SWORD THIS TIME!"

I put my hands up in surrender as I said, " Ok Babe, you win, I hate fighting with you anyways, we pay the debt together, I will do that for you, I can't do none other."

" WHAT'S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN!"

" I love you Babe, I've loved you even before we found out about the bond, it was all I could do not to make an advance on you, and well, I kinda like the way you taste, so I would prefer to be tasting you right now."

She then put her arm's across her chest, her eye's were swollen from all the crying she had done, she then said in a more calm voice, " Good, her cost was really easy though, she said all we had to do was make sure she wasn't attack when she rested. I have to wonder though, she's such a nice lady, why would anyone attack her, wait until you meet her Jon, she's really cool."

I was glad that we weren't fighting anymore, but I had a realization and was a little confused, so I had to ask, " A Bali they can get out of their compound right?"

My thought's were coming a little confused at the time, and Bali looked just as confused as she replied, " Of course they can, we're not monsters."

I tried to put my thought's in a pattern as I said the next thing, " Then what's stopping them from making another 'rescue' attempt?" I air quoted the word ' rescue.'

Her head snapped toward Amos as she said, " Get all the professors and search the yard, Jon go around the room and make sure all the windows are locked and the drapes are closed, I'll check the two in the restroom, Priscilla hide until we give the all clear."

I moved to the first of three windows, and as I locked it I saw what looked two, and a farther two police cars racing toward the front gate, even a naive kid like me could see this was bad, Priscilla then said over my shoulder, " Jon you- a Bali."

Bali who was in the bathroom then just said, " Just a minute I'm checking the last window."

I then said with worry in my voice, " Bali we're going to have company real soon, and from the looks of it, it's going to be a lot of company, I can see a lot of red and blue flashing lights, and if I got my count right, oops seven police cars."

She was next to me in a flash, and as I saw her reflection in the window two more police cars joined them, she then said, " Damned idiot, he's really trying to start a war, I have to call Makari, maybe even the High Council."

I then said with the sound of a level head which I really didn't have right at that particular time, " No Bali, you need to go out there and defuse this before it gets any worse, if it gets any worse it won't be a pretty sight."

" Of course you're right young Jon, finish with the windows, and then sit with your lovely bonded High Priestess, keep her as safe as you can. And for the goddess sake keep the door locked and the drapes closed, and only answer the door when you hear my voice."

I nodded my head as I moved to close all the draped and lock the windows, she slammed the door as she left, I felt she meant for me to close the door behind her so I did that, then I finished the last window. And on my own accord I went around and turned out all the lights except two, the one on our small table, and the vanity lights in the bathroom, I then pulled the plug on the tub, I don't know why I did that, I mean it could have waited. I then left the bathroom door just barely cracked, we loved the small lamp on the table, and it put out such a small amount of light, it may have been a little drastic since our drapes were designed to let in the smallest amount of light. Then we moved to the floor as to be the smallest targets that they could get, I can say that in after thought I may have really been going over board. So in the end I sat with her, I was ready to do battle with whatever came, I don't know why, but I envisioned me fighting to the death with whatever came, I mean as Bali had said, I'm still mostly human, and a bullet would stop me real quick. So as I worried about her I reached for her elbow and she giggled a little and said, " Jon what are you doing?"

I looked down and saw that my hand wasn't on her elbow, I quickly removed it from where I was holding her, and I had to think of why I thought that felt like an elbow. And as I've always said it has to be her choice, but in my thought's I cradled her and she whispered, " It wasn't that bad, was it?"

I immediately replied, " Yes, a no, you know, it has to be your choice, a maybe, it was bad of me, I should be thinking more then reaching, damn Priscilla I don't know, I kinda did like it though."

" What did you think you had in your hand, I mean what were you grabbing for?"

I had to chuckle as I replied, " Your elbow, I if I had thought I would have known it was to soft."

" See?"

" See what?"

" We love each other that the absurd doesn't sound so to us, I think I would have done the same if I was in your shoes."

" Maybe but I don't have those, so I wouldn't have been as embarrassed, well maybe I would have, hell I don't know what I'm thinking."

" First Jon, there called breasts, and second of all I was talking metaphorically, in as you were the woman and I was the man protecting you."

" Oh, I'm sorry that I'm messing up so badly tonight."

She then kissed me, then she drew back and whispered, " You can touch me there when ever you want Jon, I kinda like your strong touch."

I asked in surprise, " Really?"

She deepened her kiss and said, " Really Jon."

She then started to giggle, at first I was a little cross at her, but then I joined her giggle, then she said, " Kiss me you idiot."

So I did as she asked me, we were getting very hot and heavy as she moved my hand into place, before long she helped my hand move under her dress, I was being as gentle as I could, it was the most sexual we had ever been. She even moved my hand under her bra, and I felt raw skin for the first time in my life, we were moving in time as if we were having sex, I think the bulge in my pants was getting the biggest it had ever been. I felt like I was about to explode as her hand went into my pants, I think we would have had sex right then and there if what happened next didn't happen, she asked, " Is my Daddy really trying to rescue me?"

Why did she have to mention his name, I tried to reply the best I could under the circumstances, " Yeah . . . it' it could cause a war ba, between us and the human's . . . a vampires I mean."

She did it again, " Daddy's an idiot, even I can see that, hey maybe I should go out and talk to the police, hey why are you getting limp?"

" Your mentioning his name, Bali said to stay here and wait for her to call."

" I won't mention his name again."

" Just implying it isn't helping either."

" Sorry, but he is an idiot, do you know he can't even speak proper Italian, and his Sicilian ascent is so bad, even I have problems understanding him some times."

" You did it Babe, I don't think it'll come back now."

" What?"

" My hard on."

" Oh I'm sorry," she sighed as she removed her hand and continued, " he makes me so mad though."

So I started to run my hands through her hair and I said, " Man your hair is soft, I love to brush it you know."

She smiled at me and said, " You can brush it if you want."

I retrieved the brush and started to brush her hair, I sat in the chair and put her in my lap as I ran the brush through her hair, she like her hair all spiky and such, but I enjoyed it better when it was flat, and her hair had gotten longer. It was now down to her shoulder's, well not right to her shoulder's, about and inch from it, and as I pulled it straight I could feel her relax, it was very therapeutic for her. It had gone the way of Alice's hair in that movie, I mean when I met her it was really short, now it was just a little longer then the third movie, and well Alice never had all her piercings. Well she was really wearing less now, you see she liked to take them out when she slept, and over time she wore less and less, and you should see her when she sleeps, she's so beautiful, I had to wonder if Alice wonder look like that nude. Oh my bad, I mean with only a bra and panties on, I had bought her a few night gowns just in case she wanted to change, not that I had ever really given them to her, I was scared that she would say that I didn't love her anymore. It was as if we were a well oiled machine, of course she would always do the smallest things that I loved, and I would help her with all the big things, I do have to complain about one thing though, why do they make those really small clasps so difficult to catch, I mean I learnt how to do them up, but some times she still had to help me do them up.


End file.
